Hargreaves' Gorham sells £3.3m stake - but sticks the proceeds straight back in again

Hargreaves Lansdown's Ian Gorham has sold shares in the discount broker worth £3.3 million - but immediately recycled the proceeds back into the company.

Gorham, Hargreaves' chief executive, carried out the sale on Monday when he exercised an award under the broker's joint share ownership plan.

The scheme allows directors to buy the right to the growth in value of Hargreaves' shares and Gorham (pictured) took this offer up at the end of 2009 when the Bristol-based broker traded at 268.8p.

Since then, Hargreaves' shares have soared as it grew from strength to strength and raced its way into the FTSE 100, and between December 10 and December 12 Gorham sold the shares at 714.8p each, netting 447p per share as a result of the transaction.

Informing the market of his trade, Hargreaves Lansdown said Gorham had at the same time decided to buy 225,000 of the firm's shares.

He snapped up the ordinary shares for 714p each in a stake that represents 0.05% of the shares in issue.