The co-founders of fast growing Manchester fashion brand Boohoo have sold shares in the group worth £142.5m.
Mahmud Kamani, 55, and Carol Kane, 53, who founded Northern Quarter-based Boohoo in 2006, between them sold 4.3 per cent of Boohoo’s equity through a placing to institutional investors.
This has reduced their combined holding to 15.8 percent.
Kamani, the company’s executive chairman, sold 35 million shares at 285 pence each, reducing his stake to 13.1 percent, while Kane, an executive director, sold 15 million shares at the same price, cutting her holding to 2.7 percent.
The pair have agreed that they will not, without the company’s and joint global co-ordinators’ prior written consent, dispose of further ordinary shares for a period of 18 months.
The placing was managed by Zeus Capital and Jefferies.
Boohoo has grown exponentially over recent years.
Today, the fashion group’s brands include boohoo, boohooMAN, PrettyLittleThing Nasty Gal, MissPap, Karen Millen and Coast.
The retailer is tapping into a generation of younger consumers who shop on their mobile phones and share fashion tips through social media.
Boohoo also said on Tuesday it had a record performance across the Black Friday period.
The group hailed “strong” sales since the end of August as the online fashion giant said it benefited from a record performance across the Black Friday weekend.
The company said it is “comfortably in line” with forecasts for the rest of the year, having posted a 43 per cent jump in revenues in the six months to August 31.
It added that its recently acquired brands - Karen Millen, Coast and MissPap - have all been “successfully integrated” onto its platform.
Boohoo said that initial ranges for the brands have been “very well received” as it will continue to broaden its product ranges as part of its growth strategy.
The online retailer has also seen its shares lift higher in 2019, recently taking its market value past rival Asos for the first time, on the back of continued rapid growth across its brands.
Boohoo also posted an 83% jump in pre-tax profits to £45.2 million when it reported its first half profits in September.
The surge in growth has come at a time when high street retailers with significant property costs have felt the strain, with a number of major brands falling into administration and shutting stores.
