Qwest founder Philip Anschutz has trimmed his direct holdings in the Denver- based company to less than a quarter of what he owned three years ago.
In the latest of a series of complex transactions announced in recent months, Anschutz is selling 25 million more Qwest shares, according to a regulatory filing Monday. The filing also showed that he has donated 53.5 million shares to his charitable organization, The Anschutz Foundation.
Anschutz Co., the Denver financier’s investment firm, entered into a “forward sale agreement” to sell 25 million shares by June 2010 for roughly $170 million. Anschutz will keep the voting rights of those shares until they’re sold, according to the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In a similar deal in October, Anschutz agreed to sell 80 million Qwest shares by March 2010. He also sold shares in June and July.
Anschutz now holds roughly 66.4 million shares of Qwest that aren’t committed to a sales agreement or a donation, the filing states. He held 300.4 million Qwest shares in November 2003, according to a separate regulatory filing.
Anschutz was a former Qwest chairman but no longer sits on the company’s board of directors.
Qwest spokeswoman Diane Reberger and Anschutz spokesman Jim Monaghan declined to comment about Anschutz’s decision to sell Qwest shares.
“It’s an individual decision and we don’t comment on stock market activity,” Reberger said.
Anschutz’s latest sales agreement comes at a time when several Qwest executives are exercising stock options.
Five Qwest executives have made profits of more than $50 million this month by exercising stock options and selling the shares, including Qwest chief executive Dick Notebaert and chief financial officer Oren Shaffer, who each had pre-tax profits of more than $18 million. Notebaert plans to donate his after-tax proceeds to charity.
Last week, Qwest’s executive vice president of business markets, Thomas Richards, exercised 260,000 options and sold the shares for a pre-tax profit of $1.1 million.
Qwest stock closed Monday at $7.77, down 16 cents.
Staff writer Andy Vuong can be reached at 303-954-1209 or avuong@denverpost.com.
