Insurance Auto Officers Sell 650,000 Shares

Officers of Insurance Auto Auctions Inc. in North Hollywood have sold about 650,000 shares of the company’s common stock during the past three months.

Robert Kenmore, the company’s chairman, sold 250,000 shares. An Insurance Auto Auction director, Michael Gibbons, and executive vice president William Liebeck, each sold about 200,000 shares.

Kenmore said that he and the others sold the stock to diversify their holdings and the sales were not related to the company’s operations. He added that the three who sold stock are not involved with Insurance Auto’s daily management.

“We’re basically investors and not operators,” he said.

The stock sales, combined with the issuance of about 850,000 shares to pay for recent acquisitions, left the share of the company’s stock held by insiders at 38%, down from 41% after the sale of nearly 2 million shares to the public in May. Before that stock sale, insiders controlled 61% of the company’s stock.

Kenmore still owns about 800,000 shares, or 10% of Insurance Auto’s stock, while Liebeck holds 300,000 shares, a 3.6% stake. Gibbons, president of Krause’s Sofa Factory, sold his entire stake in Insurance Auto and plans to retire from the board this year.

Insurance Auto Auctions provides auction services for the insurance industry.