LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Hargreaves Lansdown shares fell on Friday after its co-founder, Peter Hargreaves, sold just under 34.4m shares in the company.
Hargreaves sold the shares to institutional investors via an accelerated bookbuild at ?16 each, raising gross proceeds of ?550m. He had initially wanted to sell ?500m worth of shares, but this was upsized due to demand.

Peter Hargreaves said: "The sale of some of my shares in Hargreaves Lansdown is part of a process of long-term financial planning to diversify my assets. I remain, and will continue to be, a substantial shareholder in Hargreaves Lansdown. I am very proud of the business that I co-founded and helped build."

Following the sale, Hargreaves owns a stake of about 24.3%, down from 32%.

The placing comes just days after Hargreaves Lansdown said in a trading statement that net new business fell 9% in the six months to the end of December to ?2.3bn. Pre-tax profit rose 12% to ?171.1m, revenue increased 9% to ?257.9m and assets under administration grew 22% to ?105.2bn.

At 0807 GMT, the shares were down 4.3% at 1,634.00p.

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