Share sell off gives Watkin Jones family £70m pay day
A trust owned by the family behind listed developer and construction firm Watkin Jones and the company’s chief finance officer have sold just under 20% of the company for more than £70m.
G&J Watkin Jones 1992 Settlement Trust, for which the trustees are Mark Watkin Jones, Glyn Watkin Jones and Jennifer Watkin Jones, and the company’s CFO Philip Byrom have together sold a 19.7% stake in Watkin Jones Plc.
The trust sold 49.25 million shares at 140 pence a share, worth £68.95m, whilst Byrom sold 1 million shares, worth £1.4m.
The Bangor-headquartered developer, which also has an office in Runcorn, focuses on the student accommodation sector.
In January it posted outstanding full year results thanks to a £15.3m reinvestment into the company by its management team, following its IPO in March last year.
In its first year as an AIM-listed company pre-tax profits hit £53.8m – an increase of more than 22%.
The company listed on AIM exactly a year ago with a market capitalisation of £255m.
Peel Hunt acted as sole bookrunner on the share sale.
