Hargreaves Lansdown PLC's (LSE:HL.) co-founder and largest shareholder, Peter Hargreaves, is open to backing a take-private deal, but not at the price that a private equity consortium offered.
Earlier, the investment platform said it had rejected two offers from a group, consisting of CVC Advisers, Nordic Capital and a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, priced at 985p per share, valuing it at £4.7 billion.
Hargreaves, who owns around a 19.8% shareholding, has lately held discussions with investors about a transaction, Reuters reported this afternoon, citing three sources.
The FTSE 100 company felt the private equity offer "substantially" undervalued its prospects, while co-founder Hargreaves would prefer a higher price, one of the sources said, though he is said to be keen to retain his stake.
One of the sources told the newswire that Hargreaves has been mulling what to do with his shareholding stake, including taking the company private, with the share price having fallen more than 60% since the end of 2019.