Saga main shareholder sells out, chairman buys in

Saga's main shareholder and former private equity owner Acromas signed off the sale off its last remaining shares overnight on Thursday, with chairman Andrew Goodsell taking the opportunity to buy £5m of stock.

Tuesday's encouraging results and bumper dividend helped lift the shares back towards 200p, which led Acromas to place the last of its 31.5% stake with institutional investors in a sale on Thursday night.

Acromas, which is controlled by private equity groups Charterhouse, CVC and Permira, will gross almost £690m from the disposal at a price of 195p apiece.

On Friday morning, house broker Numis said it had placed 352.7m Saga shares with City institutions, with the full settlement expected to take place next Tuesday, 26 April 2016.

Following this, Acromas will no longer hold any shares in the company, but Goodsell will increase his stake after agreeing to purchase 2.6m shares at the same price.

Broker Peel Hunt said it believed the accelerated book building exercise was "a positive and significant step" that would clear the overhang in the stock.

Shares in Saga were up 4% to 209.5p just before 1000 BST on Friday.