Moneysupermarket plunges as co-founder sells 20m shares

Shares in Moneysupermarket.com fell almost 6% early on Tuesday, as the co-founder of the financial service provider sold 20m shares, representing approximately 3.7% of the company's capital.

Simon Nixon, who retained a 12.8% stake, made £56m by the sale just months after he shelved plans to raise approximately £100m from a share sale.

In March, the co-founder of Moneysupermarket abandoned plans to sell 35m shares, representing approximately 6.4% of the company, which would have brought his stake down to 10% and, based on Moneysupermarket's closing price on 24 March 2015, would have given him £100.1m.

The group confirmed Nixon will remain on the board as non-executive director.

Moneysupermarket shares were down 7.44% to 280.00p at 09:20 on Tuesday.