Hansen family cuts stake in company with discount sale

Andrew Hansen, the chief of Hansen Technologies, weighed in at the head of proceedings when he sold a line of stock at a discount to the market.

The Hansen family's grip on its billing services company, which supplies energy utilities and telecommunications companies, was cut from 60 per cent to 44 per cent. The shares were sold at 85¢, compared with around 91¢ in the market.

The last time the family sold was in 2011 at 93¢ apiece, which basically sums up the performance of the stock during the past couple of years, a roughly steady price.

The shares wowed punters three of four years ago when they moved from under 30¢ to above $1, but earnings declined a shade in 2012 and fell 46 per cent in the December half.

Elsewhere, six of the eight-person Codan board ventured into the market following a 49 per cent slashing of the scrip after an earnings downgrade.

Chief executive and MD Donald McGurk said: "We took advice from our lawyers regarding the opportunity for us to buy some shares, given that the downgrade that we issued to the market a few days earlier seemed to attract some pretty negative sentiment. We believe the story.

"I think they've focused on the negatives. We'll still come out with a $45 million profit, which is twice last year's and, sure, we've had a bit of a slowdown in the last month or so, but we don't think that after one or two months we're now all of a sudden in possession of a bad business.

"We believe the fundamentals of our business are still as strong as ever."