CEO of property portal Rightmove, Nick McKittrick, has earned millions of pounds after selling shares in the firm he developed.
Rightmove’s COO, Peter Brookes-Johnson, also cashed in by selling shares, which were awarded at nil cost, similarly to McKittrick’s.
McKittrick raised £7.4m after exercising his right on Friday to obtain performance shares awarded over the past few years. He sold the shares at an average price of £37.39 per share.
He retains a stake of £5.2m, or 141,027 shares, and sits on options and other bonus stock worth a potential £14m.
McKittrick, 47, was one of the co-founding executives in Rightmove, alongside Ed Williams.
He was appointed to the board in 2004 and became CEO in April 2013, after Williams departed.
Brookes-Johnson also exercised his right to sell shares, but still holds 37,664 shares, plus other options.
He joined the portal in 2006 and became COO in 2013, after being the managing director since 2011 and head of estate agency business since 2008.
Rightmove recently announced the latest in its programme of buying its own shares. It bought 14,000 at an average price of £37.16.
Rightmove has bought 33.3m of its own shares since revealing it’s buy-back strategy on 28th December 2007.
Rightmove was launched in 2000, the brainchild of Harry Hill, the then chief executive of Countrywide. It was owned by the four main corporate firms of that time: Countrywide, Connells, Halifax and Royal & SunAlliance.
It was originally free to agents, but began charging in 2002.
In 2006, it floated on the stock market with a valuation of £425m.
Last week, Rightmove, which made £70.3m profit in the first half of the year, was worth £3.6 billion.