Quindell in £7.1m sale of stake in accident repair firm Nationwide
EMBATTLED insurance outsourcer Quindell yesterday announced it had sold its minority stake in Nationwide Accident Repair Service, after earlier denying it was looking to do so.
Quindell said it had sold its entire holding – approximately 11m ordinary shares – in the British building society’s vehicle repair service at 65p a share. The company has pocketed around £7.1m from the sale, which it will use for “general working capital purposes”.
The Hampshire-based firm refuted social media speculation it was looking to offload its stake in the repair firm in November, saying it was “not actively seeking to sell its shares in Nationwide Accident Repair Services”.
A source close to the deal told Morning Wire the decision to sell was made at a strategy meeting last week.
The beleaguered insurance outsourcer also announced yesterday that it would be issuing new shares “in order to facilitate new options for disposal”.
The company will apply for 3,66,667 new ordinary shares of 15p each to be admitted on London’s Alternative Investment Market.