Plus500 founders offload 15.5m shares

(ShareCast News) - The founders of contracts-for-difference trading platform Plus500 have sold 15.5m shares in the company at 650p each, raising proceeds of £100.75m.Plus500 said the share sale reflects the founders' desire to diversify their investments whilst raising funds for personal reasons.They will continue to hold around 22% of the issued share capital of the company.Alan Gonen sold 7.2m shares, while Gal Haber offloaded 2.6m, leaving them with a 10.4% and 3.7% stake, respectively. Elad Ben-Izhak sold 2.6m shares, while Omer Elazari and Shlomi Weizmann ditched 1.6m shares each.Liberum and Berenberg acted as joint bookrunners in connection with the placing.Earlier this month, Plus500 reported a 25% jump in first-half revenue as net profit rose amid continued growth in active and new customers.Plus500 said that many customers who were not active prior to the EU referendum reactivated their accounts and used the platform and many new customers were added during this period due to the prolonged market volatility.At 0925 BST, the shares were down 16% to 630.48p. Plus500