Hargreaves: My sale of HL shares was purely serendipitous

Timing market "invariably pure luck"

Hargreaves Lansdown co-founder Peter Hargreaves has said that his recent sale of HL stock was "purely serendipitous" and had nothing to do with concerns over the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on markets.

In a letter to markets, HL co-founder and chairman of Blue Whale Capital Hargreaves said the timing of his sale of £550m of stock in his company was accidental, and he had made no further sales as the panic around the virus unfolded. When he announced the sale of assets to institutional shareholders last month, Hargreaves told markets he was doing so to "diversify his assets", and had increased his original intended £500m sale by £50m due to "strong investor demand".   The sale represented around a fifth of his shareholding, but he still owns 24.3% of the firm, saying he is "very proud...