Burberry shares tank after holder of mystery position revealed

Shares in Burberry came off sharply following a report that the ‘mystery investor’ who had built up a greater than 5.0% stake in the company’s stock was in fact the result of a series of trading positions taken on by HSBC.

The report, referencing a Bloomberg article which cited ‘sources’ sent shares in the iconic fashion retailer down by 6.02% to 1,374p.

On 8 March, the Financial Times reported the company had gone as far as asking its advisers at Robey Warshaw to help it prepare against a possible bid.

HSBC, the custodian for the shares held as part of that stake, reportedly refused to identify the client on whose behalf it was holding those shares.

However, the FT report had pointed out that the reason why the holder of the above shares was not asked to report his position after breaking the 3.0% threshold is that under UK transparency rules investment managers are granted a partial exemption, under which they only need to disclose their positions when they rise above 5.0%.