MARKET REPORT: Hargreaves Lansdown takes another blow as founder flogs £550m worth of shares

Fund supermarket Hargreaves Lansdown took another blow as its founder Peter Hargreaves flogged £550m worth of shares.

The business was dragged into the Neil Woodford scandal last year after it recommended his doomed Equity Income fund on its Wealth 50 best-buy list right up until it was suspended in June.

Customers who together lost millions from following Hargreaves Lansdown’s recommendation were furious, and the firm apologised and waived its fees for those affected. But its shares, which are down nearly 30 per cent since the Woodford debacle began, hit a two-year low yesterday as Hargreaves became the latest big name to offload its stock.

The major share sale, which marked the first time he has ever reduced his stake since the company floated in 2007, saw investors snap up 34.4m of Hargreaves’s shares for £16 each.

Although the Lancashire-born entrepreneur insisted he was still committed to the business he created, shares fell by 6.1 per cent, or 104p, to 1604.5p. Hargreaves said: ‘I remain, and will continue to be, a substantial shareholder in Hargreaves Lansdown. I am very proud of the business that I co-founded and helped build.’

The 73-year-old still owns 24.3 per cent of the company.

Elsewhere, the wind-down of Woodford’s toxic Equity Income fund – which is being managed by Blackrock and PJT Park Hill – sold its entire stake in biotechnology company Reneuron Group.

Its 16.4pc stake sold for roughly £8m to German private investment company Obotritia Capital.

After a rally this week, US markets the S&P 500, Dow and Nasdaq were all down, despite official figures showing the American labour market added 225,000 jobs in January and that wages rose 1.3 per cent compared with the same month of last year.

Back on this side of the pond, fears that a manufacturing slump is weighing on Europe’s largest economy gained steam as national data showed German manufacturing incurred the biggest slump in more than a decade in December.

London’s two major indexes, the FTSE 100 and the FTSE 250, closed in the red last night.

The Footsie fell 0.5 per cent, or 38.09 points, to 7466.7, while the mid-cap index slid 0.3 per cent, or 73.57 points, to 21499.29.

BP shares fell 1.1 per cent, or 5p, to 470p amid yet more change in its top team. Tufan Erginbilgic will step down next month after six years as the head of BP’s downstream division, which oversees refining and petrol operations. Bernard Looney took over the firm this week from long-term boss Bob Dudley, shortly after finance head Brian Gilvary said he will leave later this year. BP also made headlines as climate activists brought a literal Trojan horse to the British Museum to protest against a corporate sponsorship agreement with the oil firm.

Holiday group Tui will net £593m by moving its luxury Hapag-Lloyd Cruises business into its Tui Cruises joint venture with Royal Caribbean. The business will have a combined fleet of 12 ships and will be valued at £1 billion.

Tui’s stock closed up 1.5 per cent, or 12.8p, at 863.6p after it announced the deal, which is expected to be completed this summer.

Traders breathed a sigh of relief as Calisen Group listed on the London Stock Exchange for £1.3 billion, proving there is still appetite for UK floats after Brexit. The smart-meter firm enjoyed a tepid first day on the LSE, with shares closing flat at 240p.

Royal Mail investors were unmoved by the news that chief executive Rico Back spent £538,000 of his own money on 300,000 shares at an average of 179p.

Shares ended the day down 0.1 per cent, or 0.1p, at 178.8p.