Asos founder in £15 million share sale

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Apr 18, 2019

One of Asos’s co-founders has just sold a chunk of its shares adding up to £15.3 million. Nick Robertson who was once CEO but is now a non-executive director of the company, sold 410,000 shares at 3,722.5p each, a stock exchange filing showed.

But he retains a sizeable stake in the company with 4.6 million shares that add up to a 5.5% holding, and at the price he sold his other shares, that amounts to almost £180 million worth of Asos stocks.

It’s not the first time he’s sold a large number of shares with Robertson offloading £46 million worth two years ago to help fund his divorce settlement. And despite tougher times for Asos of late, it has been reported that the latest share sale isn’t about Robertson losing confidence in the brand but is again part of the divorce settlement issue.

He remains on The Sunday Times Rich List with a fortune of around £372 million, derived from the huge success of Asos and its pioneering status as a leading pureplay fashion e-tailer targeting 20-somethings.

Asos shares have had a rough ride in recent periods and slowing growth has seen them dropping as much as 38% over the past 12 months. But the purchasers of the £15.3 million worth of shares Robertson sold could have a bargain on their hands if the company manages to turn around its fortunes. Given the on-going growth of online retail, any signs that Asos is back on a strong growth path should see its shares returning to an upwards trajectory.