For the first time since mid 2017, Playtech founder and (former) controlling shareholder Teddy Sagi has sold shares in the company.
Regulatory filings in the UK indicate that Teddy Sagi’s Brickington Trading Ltd holding company sold 5 million Playtech shares earlier this week, for proceeds of approximately £23.2 million (USD $30.2 million). The sale takes Mr. Sagi’s interest in Playtech down to 4.8%, from 6.3%.
Teddy Sagi had sold down his Playtech stake from an effective controlling interest of more than 33% in late 2016 to just 6.3% by June 2017, in a series of secondary block sales netting Mr. Sagi close to $1 billion. But nothing since then, until this week.
Mr. Sagi’s remaining 4.8% holdings in Playtech total 15.19 million shares, worth about £69.5 million (USD $90 million) at today’s share price. Playtech shares remain mired at near 52-week and multi-year lows (see chart below)
We had reported recently that a number of institutional investors had either increased or decreased their positions in Playtech, over the past several months, after the company’s share price took a big hit after posting disappointing results for the first half of 2018. Specifically, JP Morgan took up a 6.4% position in Playtech in mid October; Dublin, Ireland based value investor Setanta Asset Management bought a 3% interest in Playtech; and Odey Asset Management picked up a 5% stake. Odey is also a major investor in online CFDs broker Plus500.
Most recently, France based fund Boussard & Gavaudan sold down its Playtech stake from 9.1% to 4.8%.
Playtech share price graph one year. Source: Google.