888 Holdings shares fall 6% following O Shaked sale

Holdings is looking for new investors today after the family of 888 Co-Founder, Aharon Shaked sold the entirety of their 12.9% stake in the UK gambling company.

The O Shaked share trust, which represents the estate of Shaked, who died in 2010, initiated a sale of 46 million shares in the company at a price of 243p per share. It is estimated that they have netted over £112m from the share liquidation.

This latest sale follows the O Shaked family selling 40 million shares in the company in June at a return of £100m.

In the wake of the sale, the price of shares in 888 fell by 6% to 242p per share as at close of business on Wednesday evening. The sales leave Aharon’s brother, Avi Shaked, as the largest shareholder in 888 Holdings with a 24% equity stake in the business.

888’s remaining founders, Shay Ben-Yitzhak and Ron Ben-Yitzhak reduced their stake in the business to 3% in 2016.

It has been a turbulent 2017 for the firm, whose half-yearly revenue grew by 9% but were forced to pay a £7.8m fine to the UK gambling commission following revelations of “significant flaws” in processes relating to social responsibility, in which the UKGC found that 888 had failed to protect consumers from gambling-related harm.