IG spread bet founder hoists for sale sign

Stuart Wheeler, the founder of the spread-betting pioneer IG Group, sparked a takeover race for the company yesterday by putting a 45 per cent stake up for sale.

Several stockbroking firms are expected to examine the books, while Nat Le Roux, the chief executive, said he could launch a management buyout if no acceptable bids are forthcoming.

Mr Wheeler's plans to dump his remaining 23 per cent stake in the business and step down as chairman were revealed to the board two weeks ago. He defied its advice to postpone or stagger the sale. The 67-year-old, who made Britain's single biggest political donation by giving £5m to the Conservative Party in 2000, has a stake worth £27m after a surge in IG shares yesterday. Mr Wheeler said he needs the cash after spiralling repair bills at his Kent mansion, Chilham Castle, which he bought last year.

Other founding investors, representing a further 22 per cent of the equity, will follow Mr Wheeler's lead, so potential buyers will have to make a bid for the entire company.

Mr Wheeler said: "My financial position has dramatically changed since last year. The cost of making my house fit to live in turns out to be a multiple of what I thought it would be, and then I have got to be able to afford to run it on a year-by-year basis. Also, I am nearly 68, and it would be pretty mad really to have all one's assets, apart from the house, in one company."

Mr Wheeler said he would use some of his fortune for new political and charitable donations and to act as a "business angel" to young entrepreneurs.

He raised £30,000 from friends to set up IG Index in 1974 and floated the company in 2000.

Mr Le Roux said the share sale, and the bid it would trigger, were unwelcome because most institutional investors had bought in at a share price above £3, compared with 216.5p yesterday. He said there had been "not even the vaguest conversation" with potential bidders, which are thought more likely to be stockbroking firms looking to expand into spread betting.