Pidgely and Morgan sell £100m of shares
Berkeley’s chief executive Tony Pidgely and Redrow chief executive Steve Morgan have sold a combined £103.2m of stock in their respective companies since last Friday.
Pidgley sold 750,000 shares in Berkeley on 8 September, valued at £26.8m at the share price of £35.75.
Morgan meanwhile has sold shares through the Steve Morgan Foundation, a charitable organisation founded in 2001. It and Bridgemere securities offered an accelerated bookbuild offering to institutional investors of approximately 25.9m existing ordinary shares in Redrow.
Berkeley’s chief executive Tony Pidgely and Redrow chief executive Steve Morgan have sold a combined £103.2m of stock in their respective companies since last Friday.
Pidgley sold 750,000 shares in Berkeley on 8 September, valued at £26.8m at the share price of £35.75.
Morgan meanwhile has sold shares through the Steve Morgan Foundation, a charitable organisation founded in 2001. It and Bridgemere securities offered an accelerated bookbuild offering to institutional investors of approximately 25.9m existing ordinary shares in Redrow.
With the shares sold for £5.90 the transaction totalled £152.8m, with £76.4m going to the Steve Morgan Foundation.
Pidgely is the fourth-largest shareholder in Berkeley group, while Morgan and his associated vehicles hold approximately 33% of the issued share capital of Redrow and are its largest shareholder.
Two of the largest names in the UK housing market selling shares in large numbers could be taken as a sign of the peak of the market.
At the moment, housebuilders are concerned with the effect on the sector of EU negotiations, escalating construction costs, taxation and the continuation of Help to Buy,
But the big players in the sector have all continued to deliver positive results, and the mood generally is that demand is robust for new-build housing stock.
Investment bank Jefferies said in a statement: “When Tony Pidgley and Steve Morgan sell shares in the companies they founded, investors take notice and ask if the silverback alpha males in the sector are calling the top of the market. We do not think so.”
“It is our assessment that the UK continues to experience a chronic undersupply (or chronically inequitable distribution) of housing. This coupled with an existing homes market in paralysis and the stimulus of Help to Buy, places the UK new-build housing market in a very strong position, in our view.”
However, as of 14.40 the day after Morgan’s share sale, Redrow’s share price had declined by 7.2%.
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