The family of a Cheshire-based entrepreneur and philanthropist who helped launch white goods specialist AO World has cut its stake in the listed retail giant to less than 1%.
Bill Holroyd helped major shareholder and current chief executive John Roberts establish the Bolton-headquartered company and retained shares in the business when it floated on the London Stock Exchange in 2014.
Now, according to documents issued to the LSE, Mr Holroyd's wife Julie has lowered her stake from 4.6% to 0.994%.
She now holds just over 4.7 million shares in AO World.
During his career, Mr Holroyd set up his own foodservice distribution company, Holroyd Meek in the early 1980s and started his own investment business in the mid-1990s.
The shares sale comes after AO World issued a trading update in January for its third quarter, the three months ended 31 December 2020.
The retailer reported revealed it experienced its strongest ever peak trading period over the Black Friday period and in the run up to Christmas.
In the three months to 31 December 2020, it recorded year on year UK revenue growth of 67.2% to £457.3m and of 77.4% to €73.6m in Germany.
Mr Roberts remains the largest shareholder in AO World, at almost 23%, followed by Camelot Capital Partners and Ruane, Cunniff & Goldfarb.
