Next chief Lord Wolfson sells £30million of shares

Next’s boss has sold nearly £30m worth of his stock as he cashes in on the fashion firm’s recent rally.

Lord Wolfson, who is the FTSE 100’s longest-serving chief executive having been in the job since August 2001, sold 290,000 shares for just over £100 each. That landed him £29.2m.

After refining his portfolio, he now has around 950,000 shares, which represents about 0.75 per cent of the High Street stalwart.

That leaves him with a holding worth some £100m. This is not the first time Wolfson has sold his shares.

He offloaded more than £10m worth in November 2020. Last week shares hit a record high after the retailer said it was set to come within a whisker of an annual £1billion profit milestone.

Shares have risen 37 per cent over the last year. They dipped 3.5 per cent yesterday. In a bullish update last week, Next shrugged off retail gloom felt elsewhere as it looked on track to post annual profits of £1billion for the first time.

Profits are set to hit £995m for the year to the end of January.

This was the second time in two months the FTSE 100 company has upgraded its annual guidance, having increased the figure by £20m to £980m in August.

The £1billion mark is one that only a mere handful of other British retailers have achieved.

Tesco, Marks & Spencer and B&Q owner Kingfisher are the only other listed UK store chains to have raked in £1bn in profits in a single year.

The group is broadly seen as one of Britain’s most reliable retailers.

Wolfson has been praised for his careful leadership and his remarks on the health of the economy are closely-watched.

When he took on the top job, he was the youngest chief executive of a FTSE 100 company, aged 33.

Wolfson, 56, is a Conservative peer as was his father, David, who was formerly chairman of Next.

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