Founder nets £9m from sale of ebookers shares

Dinesh Dhamija, the founder and chief executive of the online travel agent Ebookers, sold £9m of shares yesterday as the company's stock hit record levels.

The sales were made to satisfy institutional demand, the company said, and came as it revealed sales in the three months to September were 58 per cent ahead of last year.

Mr Dhamija's stake, held in a family trust called Flightbookers Investments, was reduced to 53 per cent of the company's share capital after yesterday's placing. The remaining stake is worth £94m.

Mr Dhamija said: "The London market institutions were saying that we had to get more liquidity in the shares. More shares are traded on the Nasdaq than in London, and this has redressed the balance. By selling 6 per cent of the company's shares, what we are doing is increasing by 30 per cent the liquidity in the London market."

Demand for Ebookers shares has pushed them up 275 per cent so far this year, making it the second-best performer on the main market after Energy Technique, a maker of air filters. Lastminute.com, Ebookers' more famous rival, has been the third-best performer of 2002, up 245 per cent.

Ebookers stock added 17.5p to a record 355p yesterday after the company said that earnings before interest, tax and write-downs turned positive in the first quarter of its financial year thanks to cost savings from moving its administrative centre to India.

It remains on course to make its first post-tax profit by the middle of next year and perhaps achieve its ambition of being the first UK internet company to pay a dividend.