Usually when a venture capital firm bows out of a company the stock can be expected to tank, but betting shop operator William Hill ended up 0.5p at 268p as institutions snapped up a sizeable chunkof the stakes held by CVC and Cinven.
Deutsche Bank and its partner Citigroup did a sterling job placing roughly 55.6m shares at 265p in about 20 minutes. Following the flotation last June Cinven had 38.9m shares or 9.3% of the company while CVC had 8.4% or about 34.6m shares so both venture firms have retained part of their stakes.
The lock-in on the CVC and Cinven stakes ended in March. Although yesterday’s placing price was less than the 225p at which the stock started trading last year both venture capitalists have decided to retain a stake.
