Investors rush to claim their share of Hargreaves founder’s sell-off

INVESTORS clamoured for a slice of the pie as one of Hargreaves

Lansdown’s founders sold a chunk of his stake in the investment platform.

A placing of shares by billionaire Peter Hargreaves raised £550m, slightly ahead of the expected range.

Mr Hargreaves, who still owns 24.3pc of the company following the move, said the sale had occurred as 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,” he added.

Barclays, which acted as co-ordinator on the sale, said there was “strong investor demand” for the shares, which prompted Mr Hargreaves to increase the size of the placing.

He sold 34.4m shares, at a price of £16 apiece, a 6.4pc discount to Thursday’s closing price of £17.09. Shares closed just above the placing level after yesterday’s session, at £16.04.

The drop made Hargreaves Lansdown the second-biggest faller on the FTSE 100, pipped by a substantial drop for

NMC Health, the beleaguered Abu Dhabibased hospital operator that has seen its share price go haywire following a short-seller attack in December, which accused the company of poor financial reporting.

NMC ended the day down 200p, or 22pc, at 700p.

The FTSE 100 slipped 0.5pc to 7,466.7 on a day marked by moderate losses across global markets as investors grew freshly nervous over the spread of coronavirus from China.

A blockbuster United States jobs report was not enough to save sentiment. The change in non-farm payrolls – a keenly followed measure of America’s economic health – registered a sizeable beat, with 225,000 jobs added versus average expectations of 165,000.

Capital Economics’ Paul Ashworth pinned strong results on January’s “unseasonably mild weather”, but said a trend towards employment growth suggested the US economy has “more momentum than we previously believed”.

In London, individual equity movements were limited by typically thin end-of-week reporting volumes. Vodafone led the FTSE 100 for much of the day after Jefferies analysts upgraded their rating on its shares to “buy”, but cooled off in the afternoon to end up 2p at 153p.

Analysts at the bank said the FTSE 100 telecoms group has the potential to deliver growth both organically and by finding a way of monetising its tower network.

They added the “key building blocks” for success would be recoveries in its Spanish and Italian operations, and an improvement in the quality of its UK offering.

Shares in asset manager Standard Life Aberdeen

ended the day up 6p at 317p after it announced that it would undertake a share repurchase scheme of up to £400m, which will run until September.

Shares in smart meter maker Calisen rose as much as 6pc after its initial public offering at 240p a share, but pulled back to end the session flat.