Fever-Tree co-founder pockets £73m from share sale

Charles Rolls, a non-executive director and one of the founders of drink mixers maker Fever-Tree has pocketed £73m from the sale of 4.5m shares in the company, or a 3.9% stake.

The shares were sold to institutional investors at 1,625p each in a placing managed by Investec Bank and the amount sold was nearly double what was originally planned, due to "significant institutional demand".

Following the placing, Rolls retains just under 13m shares in the company, or a stake of about 11.2%. He has agreed not to sell further shares without Investec's prior written consent for a period of six months.

In March, Fever-Tree reported a surge in full-year pre-tax profit to £34.3m from £16.8m on revenue of £102.2m, up 73% from 2015. The company noted high rates of growth across all regions, flavours and formats, with a particularly notable performance in the UK, where revenue was up 118% against strong comparators from 2016.

At 1020 BST, the shares were down 4.4% to 1,670.80p.