Simon Nixon, the university dropout turned multimillionaire co-founder of Moneysupermarket.com, has sold the final tranche of his shareholding in the comparison website for £124m.
Nixon offloaded his remaining 6.9% stake on Wednesday for 328p a share. The move prompted the company’s share price to dip by about 5% to 326p.
The £124m raised by Nixon brings his total from selling his stake over the last few years to more than £700m.
Nixon created the site with Duncan Cameron in 1999 at the height of the dotcom boom, when he quit his accountancy course at Nottingham University because it was boring. Cameron disposed of his 50% stake in the business before its stock market listing in 2007.
Originally the site specialised in comparing the best mortgage deals before expanding its activities to financial and energy services.
In 2012 it acquired the MoneySavingExpert site, created by Martin Lewis, for £87m. Nixon has been steadily reducing his stake in the business and stepped down as chief executive in 2008 but continued to play an active role as executive then non-executive deputy chairman. He severed his management connection with the company when he reliquished that role at the end of 2015.
However, as Moneysupermarket’s second-biggest investor, Nixon’s plans for his remaining stake weighed on the stock market. That uncertainty was removed after Credit Suisse organised the sale of Nixon’s remaining 38m shares.
He moved to Jersey in 2012 and as a consequence paid no capital gains tax on subsequent share sales. However, he is reported to be considering a further move in search of warmer weather.
Nixon owns a property in Barbados that is part of the portfolio of luxury apartments he rents out as part of his SimonEscapes holidays business.
The portfolio includes properties in the Cotswolds, Cornwall, the Lake District and Deia in Mallorca, which is pictured as part of the backdrop to The Night Manager, the BBC drama based on the eponymous John le Carré novel.
