Founder sells out of Driver Group

THE founder and former chief executive of Driver Group has sold down all his remaining stake in the construction consultancy.

The AIM-listed Rossendale company said Steve Driver, who led the float of the business in 2005 and led it until 2011, had, along with other un-named investors, placed shares accounting for around 17% of the company’s stock.

Charles Stanley Securities led the placing for Mr Driver. A price was not disclosed.

Mr Driver resigned from his position as non-executive director last month as part of a succession plan agreed in 2011.

In a statement Driver Group said that after a round of investor presentations, Charles Stanley Securities had identified significant investor demand for the company’s shares. As a result new and existing institutional investors had acquired a total of 4,503,766 shares in an oversubscribed placing.

Alan McClue, non-executive chairman, said: “”We welcome the recent investment, interest and support for Driver demonstrated by the number of highly regarded institutional investors that have participated in this oversubscribed placing.

“We believe that our shareholders, both new and existing, have recognised that our strategy to grow the business will generate significant returns for all our shareholders and I specifically would like to welcome the new investors onto the Driver share register.”
 
Driver Group, which has a market value of £28m, has been a strong performer of late and has seen strong demand for its services in the Middle East.