SHOE STORE SIBLINGS SHARE £25m WINDFALL

THE children of troubled shoe seller Footasylum’s founder have earned almost £25m from its stock market float – despite profit warnings and a share price collapse.

Chief executive Clare Nesbitt ( pictured), 31, and her two siblings enjoyed the windfall because of the generosity of their father David Makin’s business partner and close friend, former Manchester City chairman John Wardle.

Wardle, who co-founded Footasylum with Makin, is 74 and has no children, so he set up a trust to gift 44.5m Footasylum shares to the young trio.

The siblings were handed a near-£14m windfall when the trust sold Footasylum stock in last year’s listing on the AIM market, says research by Proactive Investors. The rest was doled out when the company bought back shares from the trust which had been given out as payment for a loan. Nesbitt, her 30-year-old sister Amy Mason and 28-yearold brother Tom Makin, the firm’s marketing director, still control a combined 57pc stake which is worth nearly £18m. Shares have fallen more than 80pc since it listed at 164p last year. They were down by 1.7pc, or 0.5p, at 29.5p yesterday.