Playtech offloads entire stake in Plus500

(Sharecast News) - Playtech has sold around 11.4m shares in Plus500 - its entire stake - at 1,550p per share, realising gross proceeds of approximately £176m that will be used for general corporate purposes and debt reduction.The company said on Friday that the sale will not impact its entitlement to the interim dividend announced in August, which is equivalent to around $16m.The stake represents just under 10% of Plus500's issued share capital and following completion of the sale, Playtech will no longer hold any interest in the group.Playtech's sale came a day after Plus500's founders, Alon Gonen, Gal Haber, Elad Ben-Izhak, Omer Elazari and Shlomi Weizmann, sold 9.4m shares at a price of £15.50 apiece. The sale, representing around 8% of the total share capital and raising £145m for the founders, was said to be "in response to significant demand from a small number of institutional investors".The founders were left with a combined 8.8m shares, equating to a stake of 7.7%, and have agreed not to sell any further shares for a period at least 90 days.Plus 500 shares Shares topped £20 last month, having risen from below £4 at the start of last year. Plus500 Playtech