Fever-Tree Drinks’ monumental gains since its 2014 debut have made the stock a prized asset, so a discounted offering had investors scrambling to snap it up.
Such was the demand from institutions when co-founder Charles Rolls sought to sell part of his stake in the UK premium tonic maker that the size of the sale was doubled to three million shares.
Rolls, Fever-Tree’s non-executive deputy chairman, netted £82.5 million by selling the stock at 2,750 pence a share - 7% less than Thursday’s closing price.
Continued Growth
Investors are betting that Fevertree’s growth will continue as it seeks to expand in the US and as consumers spend money on its fancy tonics and lemonade.
Although the stock fell as much as 6.5% to 2,766 pence on Friday following the sale, it has risen more than 20-fold since the company went public in 2014.
It’s not the first time that Rolls has reduced his stake. He sold 4.5 million shares at 1,625 pence each in May 2017.
His remaining stake of about 9.93 million shares is equivalent to about an 8.6% stake, which is subject to a three-month lockup agreement.
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