British Billionaire Sells 80% of Stake in Cellphone Retailer

British Billionaire Sells 80% of His Stake in Cellphone Retailer

08 Apr 2020, 02:22 PM IST

(Bloomberg) -- Charles Dunstone, the U.K. mobile phone pioneer, sold about 80% of his stake in Dixons Carphone Plc.

He reduced his position to 1.2% from 6.9% on Monday, according to a regulatory filing. Dunstone sold about 65 million shares valued at 50 million pounds ($60 million) as of Monday. The stock has declined 46% this year with its U.K. and Irish stores shut amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Dunstone has sold more than $100 million of stock in Dixons Carphone over the past two years and boosted his holding in TalkTalk Telecom Group Plc. He owns about 360 million pounds of stock in TalkTalk, which was spun off from his original firm Carphone Warehouse in 2010.

His stake in Dixons Carphone was once worth more than $1 billion. He’s since expanded into private equity and venture capital through Freston Ventures. Its investments include Five Guys Burgers & Fries.

A Dixons Carphone spokeswoman declined to comment. The company’s shares were down 2.2% as of 9:50 a.m. in London.