Hargreaves Lansdown co-founder Peter Hargreaves has said he will sell a £500m stake in the company.
In a stock market announcement late on January 6, Barclays confirmed it has been hired to place the shares with institutional investors.
As part of the announcement, Mr Hargreaves said: "I have decided to sell some of my shares in Hargreaves Lansdown. This is part of a process of long-term financial planning to diversify my assets. I remain, and will continue to be, a substantial shareholder in Hargreaves Lansdown. I am very proud of the business that I co-founded and helped build."
The announcement stated that Mr Hargreaves intended to remain a long-term shareholder in the FTSE 100 company.
Alongside the company’s half-year results statement in January, Mr Hargreaves disclosed he had transferred £100m worth of his stock in the company to a charitable foundation.
Before this latest announcement, Mr Hargreaves owned a 31 per cent stake in Hargreaves Lansdown, worth about £2.6bn. He received a personal dividend of £17m for the six month period.
The Hargreaves Lansdown share price has performed poorly since the suspension of the Woodford Equity Income fund in June 2019. Hargreaves Lansdown heavily promoted that fund.
The share price peaked in May 2019 at £24.19, they are now £16.25 and have fallen by nearly 5 per cent since Mr Hargreaves made his announcement.
Peter Hargreaves's other investments include a stake in Blue Whale Capital and the Blue Whale Global equity fund, which has returned 25 per cent over the past year.
He also has a holding in funds managed by Nick Train, and in a space satellite company in Cornwall.
david.thorpe@ft.com
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