If this isn't appropriate as a self post, let me know where to post instead. I'll try to keep this as short as possible.
Background: I'm a US citizen, I no longer live in the US. A company I previously worked at in the US granted me stock options, which I exercised and kind of forgot about. Recently they merged with another company and went public. As part of this process, they converted my stock in the privately held previous company to stock in the new public company. In addition, they offered "sponsor warrants" in a cashless purchase where a small amount of my "old company" stock was used to buy a larger amount of sponsor warrants.
Some of my assumptions/understandings:
-
The sponsor warrants are basically like stock options all over again. They were purchased at a very cheap price, have a set strike price, and when exercised become regular stock.
-
Former colleagues told me that the current public offering is a tiny amount of shares and we aren't able to trade until June. I've heard of plenty of other companies doing this as well, but I didn't really find anything that specifically said that in the forms I was sent.
-
My current stock is represented by physical stock certificates, and the company has told me they still have it.
-
None of this seems very time sensitive. The warrants are good for 5 years, and as above, I cant do anything with stock until June.
Bottom line: I have contacted a few different people (my tax advisor, an expat finance service, others with investment experience) with broad "what should I be doing" questions and no one has been able to help and sometimes seem confused by my questions. I guess normally stock options are "bought out" and I would just get a big cash dump and move on. Stock buying selling usually goes through a brokerage service where you can just click a few buttons on a website.
My main questions are:
-
What should I do about the physical stock certificates? Do I need a brokerage service or some other kind of advisor? Should I just find a way to get them to me physically?
-
If possible I would like to be able to exercise the sponsor warrants at the same time as selling (I don't have the kind of cash needed to exercise them all at once), what kind of advisor or service would be able to help with dealing with these warrants?
-
Is there any particular service that would also help with of the forms and documents and give me ELI5 versions of what is going on and what to expect?
TLDR: I suddenly have stock due to a company going public, what kind of advisor or service should I look for to get help organizing everything?
Submitted April 02, 2019 at 07:32AM by ImpossibleEntryRed https://ift.tt/2uH50ze
