Shopify insiders poised for multi-million-dollar payday

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Several insiders of Shopify Inc. stand to become paper multi-millionaires with the Ottawa software company's upcoming initial public offering.

The company hasn't yet disclosed what price it will set for the public offering of its stock or specified how much it will sell, saying only it plans to raise up to $100-million (U.S.). However, in its registration statement filed Tuesday with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission, the company determined the fair value of its pre-IPO common stock to be $10.72 per share.

Assuming the company prices its stock for at least that amount in the IPO, then the nine million pre-IPO shares controlled by 34-year-old chairman and CEO Tobi Lutke would be worth $96.5-million, while options he has received at strike prices ranging from 9.5 cents per share to $6.22 per share would have an in-the-money value of another $10-million.

Co-founder and former CEO Scott Lake's 3.8 million shares would be worth $40-million at the pre-IPO price, while the company's early chairman Bruce McKean, who happens to be Mr. Lutke's father-in-law and former landlord, owns a similar amount of stock. Meanwhile, several senior officers of the company, including chief design officer Daniel Weinard, chief platform officer Harley Finkelstein, chief marketing officer Craig Miller and chief financial officer Russell Jones each have between $5-million and $17-million worth of stock and unrealized options gains based on the IPO price.

Many other employees and other Shopify backers stand to do well with the IPO – again, assuming the stock is priced at more than its value last month. According to the regulatory filing, there were 15,245,654 options outstanding at the end of March, with a weighted average strike price of $1.58 per option. At that price, holders of options are sitting on a total of $139-million in unrealized gains. Of course, all of these values could go up substantially if there is strong demand for the stock during the road show led by Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse and RBC.

Shopify has boosted revenue by more than 100 per cent in each of the past two years with its software platform that enables retailers to manage both their online and physical stores over the Internet. It has more than 162,000 merchant clients, mostly in the U.S., and posted revenue of $37.3-million in the quarter ended March 31.