Almost immediately following the expiry of the 180 day lockup which they agreed to following their last share sale in early March 2018, the founding group of Plus500 shareholders have announced that they have sold another chunk of stock, representing more than half of their remaining collective stake in the company.
In total, the shareholder group (see details below) sold 9.39 million Plus500 shares at a price of £15.50 per share raising aggregate gross proceeds of £145.5 million (USD $188 million) through Liberum Capital Limited. The shares were sold at a discount of 2.27% to Tuesday’s closing price of £15.86.
The founders have agreed not to sell any further Plus500 shares they hold for a period of 90 days after completion of the transaction – a shorter-term lock-up than last time – subject to waiver by Liberum at its sole discretion.
Interestingly, Plus500 shares traded up on Thursday after news of the deal broke, with the shares closing up 1.4% on the day at £16.08.
Also interesting is that this share sale was done at an almost 50% premium to the last founders’ share sale, completed in March as we note above. Plus500 has continued to report record results in 2018, well above 2017 Revenue and Profit levels, sending the shares sharply higher over the course of 2018.
The founding shareholder group now holds in aggregate about 8.8 million Plus500 shares, or about 7.7% of the company’s outstanding ownership. The share sales and remaining shares break down as follows:
|
Resultant shareholding after Sale Shares have been sold |
|||
|
Founder |
Number of Shares Sold |
Shares |
% |
|
Alon Gonen |
5,100,000 |
3,391,539 |
2.98% |
|
Gal Haber |
1,200,000 |
1,805,457 |
1.59% |
|
Elad Ben-Izhak |
1,290,000 |
1,715,457 |
1.51% |
|
Omer Elazari |
900,000 |
928,683 |
0.82% |
|
Shlomi Weizmann |
900,000 |
928,683 |
0.82% |
|
Total |
9,390,000 |
8,769,819 |
7.70% |