Carphone Warehouse founder banks £35.4m

Carphone Warehouse founder and chairman Charles Dunstone has raised £35.4m from a share disposal.

Dunstone sold 15m shares at 236p each. That still leaves him with nearly 133.1m shares, or 29.12% of the company.

Dunstone founded Carphone Warehouse in 1989. In those days it was purely a mobile phones retailer in the UK. The retail and distribution business, which has stores in the UK and Western Europe, is now part of the joint venture between Carphone Warehouse and US consumer electronics retailer Best Buy.

First quarter retail sales were better than expected.

Carphone Warehouse also has a 47.5% stake in Virgin Mobile France along with investments in property and technology licences.

Carphone Warehouse raised £185m at 200p a share when it floated in July 2000. TalkTalk Telecom was demerged earlier this year with holders of two Carphone Warehouse shares getting two TalkTalk shares on share in the new Carphone Warehouse business.

Dunstone is also chairman of TalkTalk and he owns 32.4% of the company.

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