Moneysupermarket share price dips as Simon Nixon cuts stake in website and rakes in £56m
Entrepreneur Simon Nixon yesterday sold off a 3.7 per cent stake in Moneysupermarket.com, the price comparison website he set up in 1999, making him £56m.
The sale of 20m shares, announced yesterday by Credit Suisse, cuts Nixon’s stake in the company down to 12.8 per cent. At 280p per share, the sale netted him £56m.
The 46-year-old is set to remain a non-executive director of the company, which originally compared mortgage deals, but now offers comparisons across a range of financial products.
Nixon has gradually reduced his holding in the company since it floated on the London Stock Exchange in 2007 – a float that left him 54.5 per cent of the company.
He dropped out of an accountancy course at Nottingham University to start the company in 1993, but it was not until 1999 that the popular website was up and running.
Nixon is set to remain a non-executive director of the company
The current sale follows a sell-off of a 10.6 per cent stake worth £129m in March last year and an 18.5 per cent stake worth £200m in June 2013.
Shares in the company, which is listed on the FTSE 250, were down 2.78 per cent at 294p when markets closed yesterday.
It comes after Nixon shelved plans earlier this year to rake in £100m from a more substantial share sale. In March, he pulled a
U-turn and ditched plans to sell 35m shares, or 6.4 per cent of the company.
The company saw strong growth in the first three months of this year, as its revenues climbed to £77m, more than three times the amount of revenue earned in the same period last year. However, some analysts have said this was due to an exceptionally weak start to 2014.