Stephen Lansdown has taken advantage of markets rallying off the back of positive Covid vaccine news and sold another £103m of his stake in Hargreaves Lansdown.
An RNS filing from Thursday evening shows Lansdown ditched 7.6 million shares on 18 November, reducing his remaining 7.1% stake by 1.4%.
Lansdown (pictured) told Bloomberg the recent market rally spurred by positive vaccine news from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna had created an “opportune time” to sell down his Hargreaves stake and support his investments in sectors that have been battered by the pandemic.
The FTSE All Share has jumped 2.8% since 9 November when Pfizer revealed its Covid drug was 90% effective and Moderna revealed the following week its own drug displayed 94.5% efficacy and fewer logistical challenges.
But over the same period, Hargreaves’ share price has fallen 4.8% to £14.91 a piece thanks to outages on the D2C firm’s website and app that caused millions to miss out on last Monday’s market rally.
When Lansdown cut his stake Hargreaves’ shares were priced at £15.26.
Lansdown told Bloomberg the proceeds of the sale would help redevelop the area outside his Bristol City Football Club stadium and the Guernsey hotel he bought last year La Grande Mare. Lansdown has lived in Guernsey since 2010 after stepping down as Hargreaves’ chairman.
“I’ve got a lot of commitments over the next 12 months,” Lansdown said. “Some of them have been planned for a long time, and they’re coming to fruition. Others are of a necessity to support businesses.”
Lansdown has been gradually paring back his stake in the D2C firm, which he founded alongside Peter Hargreaves, now also a billionaire, in 1981. On 30 April, he sold over 10 million shares worth £160m to free up cash as markets rebounded from the Covid sell-off in March. The sale happened days after Hargreaves announced it would scrap its controversial Wealth 50 buy list which pushed shares up 2%.
In total Lansdown has sold £163m worth of stock this year via PHL Limited, a Guernsey-based company he controls. He now owns 5.7% of the business, a stake valued at just over £406m.
Over the last year the platform giant’s share price is down 18%, weighed down by the reputational fallout from the Neil Woodford scandal, the Covid sell-off and, more recently, its shoddy performance on one of the busiest trading days on record.
Lansdown’s business partner Hargreaves has also been gradually reducing his stake in Hargreaves as part of his “long-term financial planning,” selling £550m worth of shares weeks before the pandemic kicked off. However with a remaining 23.9% stake he has more voting rights than Lansdown, and was recently granted authority to select a nominee to serve on the Hargreaves board.
Hargreaves has this year launched a £100m foundation to support young people with disabilities or from disadvantaged backgrounds to “lead a full life through engagement in education, sport and associated activities”.
See also: Peter Hargreaves avoids £94m hit from ‘serendipitous’ HL sale
