The founder of Moneysupermarket.com has scrapped plans to sell a £95m stake in the price comparison website less than a day after announcing the selloff.
Simon Nixon intended to sell 35m shares, amounting to a 6.4% stake. The multimillionaire announced his decision to cash out on Tuesday afternoon, only to cancel the sale on Wednesday morning. Shares fell by 5.7% or 16 to 270p.
Nixon’s intentions were made public through Citigroup, with the company itself apparently left in the dark over his decisions.
The man who dropped out of his accountancy degree because it was “too boring” has sold £400m of shares since the company floated on the stock market in 2007. He founded the company in 1999 at the height of the dotcom boom.
Nixon now retains a 16.5% stake in the website, but as a non-executive deputy chairman of the company he is no longer involved in the day-to-day running of the business. It is not clear why Nixon pulled out of the share sale.
Citigroup said in a brief statement on Wednesday: “Further to yesterday afternoon’s announcement, Simon Nixon has decided not to proceed with the proposed sale of shares.”
Last year the entrepreneur – who also owns a portfolio of luxury properties for rental – made £130m selling a stake of about 13%.
