Plus500 founders pocket £80m after offloading 6% stake

The five founders of AIM-listed online trading platform Plus500 have sold 7.27 million shares in the company - a 6% stake - pocketing gross proceeds of £80m.

The shares were sold at 1,100p each and the founders have agreed with Liberum, which is global coordinator for the placing, not to sell any further ordinary shares for a period of 180 days after completion.

In a statement on Thursday announcing the placing, the company said the sale reflects the founders’ "desire to diversify their investments whilst raising funds for personal reasons".

Alon Gonen, Gal Haber, Elad Ben-Izhak, Omer Elazari and Shlomi Weizmann will still have a stake of just under 16% in the company once the placing has completed.

Gonen sold a 7.5% stake, while Haber and Ben-Izhak sold 2.6% stakes, and Elzari and Weizmann sold 1.6% interests in the group.

At 1300 GMT, the shares were down 6.7% to 1,091p.