Hargreaves Lansdown co-founder says price ‘not main consideration’ for selling business

One of Hargreaves Lansdown’s co-founders and top shareholders has warned that “price is not the main consideration” if private equity firms make a firm takeover offer for the investment platform this week.

Stephen Lansdown, who co-founded the UK’s largest retail investment service with Peter Hargreaves more than four decades ago, told the Financial Times that he would want to know what private equity firms would do with the business if they bought it. He owns a stake of nearly 6 per cent.

A group of private equity firms, led by CVC Capital Partners, made a £4.67bn offer for Hargreaves Lansdown in April, which the board rejected in the view that it “substantially undervalued” the business. Shares rose more than 15 per cent after the approach emerged.

The private equity firms, which include Nordic Capital and Platinum Ivy, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, are now considering whether to make a firm offer by the deadline on Wednesday — or to walk away.

“The conglomerate — and we’re waiting to see if they come back — has given no indication of what they want to do with the business and how they see the business developing,” Lansdown said. “I would want to know what their plan is for looking after clients and staff in particular. Price is not the main consideration if it’s not taking on the business in the right way.

“I’d be very surprised if they didn’t come back with a further bid; it’s then up to the board of HL whether they bring it to the shareholders or reject.”

He added that the approach had relieved “pressure” on Hargreaves Lansdown’s share price, which had fallen from £24 in 2019 to as low as £7 this year. He said that the company had also become one of the most shorted stocks on the London market.

One top 20 shareholder said that “hedge funds [shorting the stock] have completely missed the wood for the trees, ignoring the growth in customer numbers and assets that HL is consistently achieving”.

He added that other companies, such as banks, could make an approach, given Hargreaves Lansdown’s dominance of the retail investment market. “It would be impossible to build HL’s market share from scratch, so I would expect any US or European bank to be looking closely at HL if they have any ambition to build a position in one of the world’s largest pools of household wealth.”

Hargreaves Lansdown oversees £150bn in customer assets for some 1.8mn customers.

Nick Train, another top shareholder with a holding of nearly 13 per cent according to Refinitiv, said that the private equity approach was unsurprising because the stock was undervalued.

“Its prior stock market valuation had seemed exceptionally low,” Train said. “But many UK-listed asset and private wealth management franchises seem exceptionally lowly valued, too.”

Hargreaves Lansdown and the private equity consortium declined to comment.