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Sir Will Adderley, deputy chairman of Dunelm, has sold £114mn worth of shares in the company in order to achieve “greater portfolio diversification”.
Adderley, together with a vehicle controlled jointly with his wife, sold 10mn — or 4.9 per cent of the issued share capital — shares on September 24 at 1,140p per share via a placing. Following the sale, Adderley and his connected persons own 32.8 per cent of the company, making them the largest single shareholder.
The share placing was completed at a 7.6 per cent discount to Dunelm’s share price on September 23 and following the sale, shares slid by 6.3 per cent.
Accounts for WA Capital Limited, the entity which sold the assets, show that it had net assets of £487mn as of June 30 2023. The vehicle’s Dunelm stake has reduced to zero following the sale.
Dunelm said that Adderley “remains fully committed to Dunelm in his role as deputy chairman as well as remaining a very substantial shareholder in the company”.
Adderley last sold shares in Dunelm in February 2021. Following the latest sale, he will refrain from further share disposals in the company for at least 180 days.
Dunelm recently reported strong annual results, increasing gross margin by 180 basis points to 51.8 per cent. Market share across homeware and furniture also rose by 60 basis points to 7.7 per cent.
The company, founded by Adderley’s father, currently trades on a forward price to earnings ratio of 14.8 times and has a forward dividend yield of 3.9 per cent.
Judges founder sells ahead of Budget
David Cicurel, founder and chief executive of Judges Scientific, has just made £6mn through the sale of 60,000 shares in the company.
On the one hand, this might not seem like the best time to cash in. The first six months of this year were “a difficult period” for the Aim-listed scientific equipment company, he recently told the IC.
“The climate is not good,” he said. “Order intake is below par.”
Judges reported flat revenue and a 16 per cent slide in adjusted pre-tax profit but maintained its full-year guidance. Cicurel expects a stronger finish to the the year as some deals that it expected to be signed in the first half slipped into the second.
Judges’ share price has fallen by 16 per cent since late July when it first flagged that first half trading would be subdued, but its record over a longer timeframe is excellent. It has delivered a 23.5 per cent compound annual return to shareholders over the past decade, compared with just 1.3 per cent for the broader Aim index, according to FactSet.
Therefore, like a number of other founder shareholders sitting on long-term realised gains, Cicurel has decided to cash in a portion of his shares ahead of next month’s Budget, given the speculation of a potential increase in capital gains tax. However, as RBC Brewin Dolphin’s Rob Burgeman has pointed out, this would be difficult (though not impossible) to impose before the start of the new tax year.
“David wished to crystallise a tenth of his position ahead of the widely expected increase in CGT,” Judges said.
Cicurel retains an interest in just over 600,000 shares, or 9 per cent, of the company.
