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Capita chief Pindar sells £2.7m worth of shares for divorce settlement

Tom Bawden
Tuesday 24 April 2012 22:53 BST
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The chief executive of Capita, the services company which introduced the Congestion Charge to London's roads, has sold about £2.7m worth of shares in the business, much of which he is understood to be using to finance a costly divorce settlement.

Paul Pindar, perhaps best known for rejecting suggestions that he was a fat cat by telling staff he was on only £14,500 a week, sold 400,000 Capita shares yesterday "to satisfy a personal settlement". This left him with 1.3 million shares, worth nearly £9m at last night's closing price.

Mr Pindar, an avid Leeds United supporter, met his wife, Deidre, while studying psychology at Swansea University. The couple married in Glamorganshire in 1985.

Mr Pindar's settlement sees him following in the footsteps of his predecessor, Rod Aldridge, who founded Capita nearly 30 years ago. In 2005, Mr Aldridge sold £7.64m worth of Capita shares to meet a divorce settlement with his wife, Jacqui.

Coincidentally, a fortnight earlier Mr Pindar had offloaded £2.26m worth of Capita shares, this time to pay off the mortgage on his London flat.

Mr Pindar's latest share sale was conducted alongside the issue of 40 million ordinary shares – worth £272m – in Capita, which ran the London Congestion Charge scheme for the first five years, before losing it to IBM in 2007. The company, which has spent £1.3bn on acquisitions since 2005, indicated that it would continue its buying spree following yesterday's share sale.

The issue of new stock – and sale of Mr Pindar's shares – sent down Capita's shares by 46.5p, or 6.4 per cent, to close at 682.5p, making them the biggest faller on the FTSE 100.

Married to the job

£47m: Todd Kozel

The Gulf Keystone boss moved shares into his wife's name to help fund his divorce in January.

£40m: Stephen Marks

French Connection's founder had to sell stock in his fashion chain in 2004 to fund his split from his wife Alisa, reported to have devised the controversial FCUK brand.

£400,000: Sir Stuart Rose

When he was running Marks & Spencer, Sir Stuart had to sell some of his shares to partly fund his divorce to wife Jennifer in 2010.

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