As speculation continues to swirl around a potential mega-merger between outdoor retail giants Cabela’s and Bass Pro Shops, details are beginning to emerge that may point towards a future deal—including nearly half a billion dollars in stock movement from company chairman Jim Cabela.
According to reports from Omaha.com, investment bankers are pointing to the 2015 relocation of 11.2 million shares of Cabela’s stock by the company chairman as a possible “red flag” for a sale.
“It could mean that he’s expecting that that’s going to happen soon,” Jim Zipursky, managing director of Omaha’s Corporate Finance Associates MidWest, which handles mergers and acquisitions told Omaha.com. “It’s just another signal that something’s coming down.”
The stock movement, coupled with shakeups in the company’s C-suite—Cabela’s divided the roles of president and CEO among Scott K. Williams and Tommy Milner this month, respectively—all point to likely movement behind the scenes at the Sidney, Nebraska-based retail giant; movement that financial experts are predicting could signal a changing of the guard, or even the much rumored sale to Springfield, Missouri-based Bass Pro Shops.
Cabela’s says the executive movement is in line with their “Vision 2020” campaign, an effort to bring more value to their shareholders and more focus on their core customers that saw 70 employees laid off from its corporate headquarters.
Shares of Cabela’s are down 14 percent as of this report.
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