Publishing group Future (FUTR) sees its shares fall 9.9% this morning to £14.17, making them the worst performers on the FTSE 250 index.
However, the move doesn’t relate to any trading weakness or corporate mis-step. Instead the market is reacting to a placing, first announced overnight, of £43.7m worth of shares in the company or a little over 3% of the issued share capital.
This isn’t to raise funds to invest in the business, instead the sales are principally being made by senior management, and employees who have departed with ‘good leaver’ status, who exercised options on shares in the business associated with their remuneration packages.
Chief executive Zillah Byng-Thorne and chief financial officer Penny Ladkin-Brand sold 1,045,344 and 550,000 shares respectively. The company says this was, in part, to cover tax obligations and other costs associated with exercising the options.
Both have said they do not intend to sell any further shares in the next 90 days. The other sellers, comprising 17 individuals employed or previously employed by Future, sold a combined 1.5m shares.
The company recently (15 Nov) announced a strong set of full year results.
