Sell your units in a liquidity window
While a purchase offer is open, you can sell part of your vested units, up to the maximum the offer sets. You go to "Incentive market", open the offer in "Purchase offers" and accept it. During the transaction, the company may ask you for information, documents and your signature before validating it.
On this page
Before you start
- Access to "Incentive market". The company turns it on for each beneficiary: if you can't get in, ask them.
- An open purchase offer. If there isn't one, there is nobody to sell to: we explain why.
- Vested units. Units that are still vesting cannot be sold.
How to do it#
- Go to "Incentive market". On the home page, the "Purchase offers" list shows the open ones, with their price and deadline.
- Open the offer and look at its conditions. The price per unit, the end date and, if there are any, the maximum share of your vested units you can sell and the maximum amount per person.
- Accept the offer and enter how many units you are selling. You can sell all the units the offer allows or fewer. Whatever you don't sell is still yours.
- Deal with whatever the company asks for. Your acceptance opens a transaction. While the company reviews it, it may ask you for information or documents and for your signature on the sale and purchase agreement. When everything is ready, it validates it.
If you have access to the market, you can also take the initiative: in "Sell my units", "Create sell offer" publishes an offer of your own for someone else to buy.
How what you receive is calculated#
Ana has 3,000 vested units in a plan with an exercise price of €10. The offer pays €19.40 per unit and lets her sell half of her vested units.
| Units she sells (50% of 3,000) | 1,500 |
| Amount sold (1,500 × €19.40) | €29,100 |
| Less exercise price (1,500 × €10) | −€15,000 |
| Value before tax | €14,100 |
| Less withholding (example: 19%) | −€2,679 |
| Net amount | €11,421 |
The withholding in the example is just that, an example: the company applies the percentage according to your situation. If you have questions about how to declare it, ask a tax advisor.
Before you sell, compare the offer price with your exercise price. If a unit has an exercise price higher than the offer price, selling it leaves you nothing.
What happens next#
- The transaction stays pending while the company reviews it. If it asks you for something, answer as soon as possible: the sale is not validated until everything is in place.
- When the company validates it, the units sold no longer count as yours. The rest keep vesting as usual.
- Payment is made by the buyer, in the way agreed with the company.
Frequently asked questions#
Do I have to sell?
No. Selling is an option. If you do nothing, the offer closes and you keep all your units.
Why can I sell less than I have vested?
Because the offer can set limits per seller: a percentage of vested units and a maximum amount per person. Whichever is lower applies.
I can't get into "Incentive market". Why?
Most likely the company has not given you access to the market. Access is turned on beneficiary by beneficiary: ask whoever manages the plan.
Can I sell if I no longer work at the company?
It depends on your plan's conditions and on the offer. If you still have vested units, ask the company whether you can take part.
Related
- What a liquidity window is A liquidity window, or buyback offer, is the period during which someone, often the company itself, buys part of the vested units of an incentive plan at a set price. In Sttok it is a purchase offer in "Incentive market", and in a company that is not listed it is the way to turn those units into money.
- What an incentive plan is An incentive plan is how Sociedad Ejemplo, S.A. shares with its team part of the value it creates: it grants you units that become yours over time and that turn into money when the company opens a liquidity window.
- The invitation letter The invitation letter is the document in which the company offers you units of an incentive plan: it states how many, from which plan, on what conditions and with what schedule. When you accept and sign it, the grant becomes final.