Timing seems right for jeans manufacturer to sell shares.

COULD Paul Guez be turning blue into green?

That's the question now that signs are there is a glut in the blue jeans market and Blue Holdings Inc. has a shelf registration on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission to sell more than 23 million shares.

That would allow the founder, chairman and chief executive of the Commerce-based maker of premium Antik brand jeans to dispose of some 18 million shares of the company's stock for a cool $107 million.

For now, though, the company insists a big pay day is "not in the offing, despite the fact Blue Holding's shares have been holding steady around $6 and some analysts think the premium jeans market is in for a shakeout.

"Mr. Guez has told me many, many times he won't be selling a single share," said Patrick Chow, the chief financial officer of Blue Holdings, which is publicly traded on the Nasdaq. "This is his baby and his vision."

At Blue Holdings, Guez clearly holds the reins.

Together with his wife Elizabeth, the former chief operating officer of the company, he owned about 72 percent of the outstanding shares as of May 9. The remaining shareholders include Chow, members of the design team, Guez' daughter Irene and executive Kevin Keating, who orchestrated the reverse merger that took Blue Holdings public last year.

For his part, Chow said he's holding on to his shares--a total of 130,000--for the long term. "There is no intention as far as I am concerned to sell everything," he insisted, though Chow said other share sales could take place in the near future.

Eric Beder, an analyst with Brean Murray & Co., said that the company might want to use cash generated by any sales toward retail operations or acquisitions.

Indeed, competitor and L.A.-based premium denim company True Religion Apparel Inc. has already said it is diversifying its product line. True Religion, which went public in a reverse merger like Blue Holdings, is on the lookout for a private equity firm to get the company out of the public markets.

Ilse Metchek, executive director of the California Fashion Association, isn't surprised that jeans companies would leave the public markets behind so soon after joining them.

"There is an oversupply," Metchek said. "If you were in the jeans business 100 percent and you tried to predict a third quarter profitability, you would have a hard time."

For the quarter ended March 31, Blue Holdings did tally an increase in net sales to nearly $11.9 million from slightly more than $5 million for the same period a year earlier. Net income went up to just over $680,000 from around $466,000.

Staff reporter Rachel Brown can be reached at [e-mail] or by phone at [phone], ext. 224.