Carphone founder sells £56m of shares

Guy Johnson, one of the multimillionaire founders of the retailer Carphone Warehouse, yesterday cashed in £56m worth of shares in the company.

The 40-year-old resigned from the board in July 2001 and agreed not to sell more than 5 million of the 92 million shares he owned in any one year without special consent.

He sold 40 million shares in the company yesterday at 140p, which were placed with Morley Fund Managers. Last August he sold 4.8 millionshares when they were 123p. This banked him £6m at the time.

Mr Johnson, alongside the co-founder and existing chief executive Charles Dunstone, led the business to its floatation in 2000. He joined the company in 1989 and built up its purchasing and logistics department. Carphone Warehouse raised £185m at the time of listing, selling shares at 200p a share to make the company worth £1.64bn. Mr Johnson's stake was once worth £117m.

He still owns 3 per cent of the business and will still have to apply to the board should he want to sell more shares this year. The company's shares closed at 143p, valuing his remaining stake at £37m.

After leaving Carphone Warehouse, Mr Johnson went to live in Portugal, but has since returned to the UK.

A spokesman for Carphone Warehouse said the share sale was good news for the company. "A very good offer came forward for the shares from a single institution at close to market value. This increases liquidity and we now have a very good institutional investor on our register," he said.

The buyer is Morley Fund Management.

Mr Johnson handed over 750,000 shares in December as part of a bonus scheme to staff that resulted in 40 employees sharing a £7m Christmas present. Mr Dunstone, who is also chairman of the company and owns more than 30 per cent of the company, gifted 2.5m shares to senior executives.

Despite gloom on the high street for many retailers, Carphone recently reported an increase in like-for-like sales of 27.7 per cent, boosted by demand for mobile phones with built-in cameras. The group is valued at £1.25bn.