FNG Exclusive… When there are sellers, then there have to be buyers.

After reporting last week that a number of senior executives and board members of FX risk management and payment solutions company Alpha FX Group plc (LON:AFX) were cashing out some of their holdings, FNG has learned that a good chunk of the shares ended up in the hands of a small number of UK and US institutional investors.

Through a secondary offering arranged last week by stockbroker Liberum, Alpha CEO Morgan Tillbrook sold 2,714,281 shares, co-founder Jonathan Currie sold 904,760 shares and CFO Tim Kidd sold 120,000 shares, alongside some smaller share sales by Alpha FX directors Clive Kahn and Lisa Gordon. Overall, 3,846,153 Alpha FX shares were sold by the insiders – nearly 10% of all AFX shares outstanding – for proceeds of £35 million.

FNG has learned via regulatory filings that three of the largest buyers of those shares were UK active fund manager Jupiter Fund Management Plc, specialist fund management company Liontrust, and Chicago based small/mid cap company investor Kabouter Management LLC.

Jupiter has upped its holding in Alpha FX from 7.62% up to 12.07%; Liontrust from 5.09% to 11.69%; while Kabouter picked up 3.54% of the company.

After the aforementioned secondary share sale, CEO Morgan Tillbrook continues to own more than 6.8 million AFX shares, or 17% of total, making him the single largest shareholder in the company. Co-founder Jonathan Currie, no longer involved in the active management of the company, holds about 2.29 million shares or about 5.7%.

Alpha FX shares have performed very well since hitting a 52 week low of 465p at the height (or rather, depth) of the COVID-19 mini-market crash in late March. Alpha FX recently reported strong results for the first half of 2020 despite the complications of the coronavirus crisis.