888 shares slide on Shaked family sell-off
Share price dips 6% after one of founders’ family sells 13% stake
888 shares fell by 6% on Wednesday, after a trust owned by one of the founders’ families sold off their entire stake in the business.
The O Shaked Shares Trust, owned by the family of the deceased Aharon Shaked, sold more than 46 million ordinary shares at 243p per share, raising around £112m.
Loser of the day: 888 down 6.1% as a trust owned by one of its founding families sells remaining 13% stake at discount to yesterday's close
— Paul Jarvis (@pajemiki) October 4, 2017
The family were not active, despite owning a 12.9% stake in the company.
The sale price represented a significant discount on Tuesday’s closing price of 258p, causing the share price to drop around 6%. The stock opened Thursday at 242p.
The sale comes four months after the family sold another four million shares in the company for £108m.
The family of Avi Shaked, another of the company’s founders, still owns a 24% stake in the business.
Last month the company reported a 9% H1 revenue rise, but swung to a loss thanks to exceptional costs, including the one-off £7.8m financial penalty for failings in its self-exclusion system.
The company has since cut large numbers of affiliates to help it keep closer tabs on their activity.