Xero founder Rod Drury sells $200m stake, Goldman in trade
Goldman Sachs' equities desk was in the market with a $198 million block of Xero shares on Wednesday night.
Funds were told the 2 million shares were being sold on behalf of Xero founder Rod Drury, Anna Stuck and Scott Moran, in their capacity as the trustees of the Rodanna Ventures Trust.
The shares were being offered at $99 each, which represented a 3.9 per cent discount to Xero's $103 close on Wednesday, according to terms sent to funds.
At that price, the 2 million shares would be worth $198 million.
The offer represented 1.4 per cent of Xero's shares on issue and books were pegged to close on the deal at 5:45pm on Wednesday.
Following the block trade, Drury and co would not be able to sell Xero shares again until 4pm on the day the company announced its fiscal 2021 half-year results.
Xero's shares are trading up almost 30 per cent year-to-date and closed at a record high on Wednesday, after chairman David Thodey revealed he'd bought $405,000 worth of shares in the company.
News of the block comes a week after the cloud accounting software giant bought Sydney-based fintech Waddle for an upfront sum of $31 million. The company could pay a further $49 million in cash and shares if certain milestones are met.
Waddle is a cloud-based lending platform, focused on lending to small businesses.
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