Playtech offloads entire stake in Plus500
Playtech has sold around 11.4m shares in Plus500 - its entire stake - at 1,550p per share, realising gross proceeds of approximately £176m that will be used for general corporate purposes and debt reduction.
Financial Services
14,023.32
10:20 19/04/24
FTSE 250
19,269.28
10:20 19/04/24
FTSE 350
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FTSE All-Share
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Playtech
436.00p
10:14 19/04/24
Plus500 Ltd (DI)
2,114.00p
10:19 19/04/24
Software & Computer Services
2,329.13
10:20 19/04/24
The company said on Friday that the sale will not impact its entitlement to the interim dividend announced in August, which is equivalent to around $16m.
The stake represents just under 10% of Plus500's issued share capital and following completion of the sale, Playtech will no longer hold any interest in the group.
Playtech's sale came a day after Plus500's founders, Alon Gonen, Gal Haber, Elad Ben-Izhak, Omer Elazari and Shlomi Weizmann, sold 9.4m shares at a price of £15.50 apiece.
The sale, representing around 8% of the total share capital and raising £145m for the founders, was said to be "in response to significant demand from a small number of institutional investors".
The founders were left with a combined 8.8m shares, equating to a stake of 7.7%, and have agreed not to sell any further shares for a period at least 90 days.
Plus 500 shares Shares topped £20 last month, having risen from below £4 at the start of last year.