Next boss Lord Wolfson sells £30m worth of shares

The Next boss has sold his shares worth almost £30m as he cashes in on the fashion firm’s recent rally.

Lord Wolfson, who is the longest-serving chief executive in the FTSE 100, having been in the role since August 2001, sold 290,000 shares for just over £100 each. That earned him £29.2 million.

After refining his portfolio, he now holds around 950,000 shares, representing around 0.75 per cent of the High Street stalwart.

That leaves him with a stake worth around £100m. This is not the first time Wolfson has sold his shares.

It shed more than £10m in November 2020. Last week the shares hit a record high after the retailer said it was close to hitting a £1bn annual profit milestone.

Shares are up 37 percent over the past year. Yesterday they fell 3.5 percent. In a bullish update last week, Next shrugged off the retail gloom felt elsewhere as it looked on course to post annual profits of £1bn for the first time.

Profits are expected to reach £995m in the year to the end of January.

This was the second time in two months that the FTSE 100 company has raised its annual guidance, having raised the figure by £20m to £980m in August.

The billion pound mark is something only a handful of other British retailers have reached.

Tesco, Marks & Spencer and B&Q owner Kingfisher are the only other listed high street chains in the UK to have made £1 billion in profits in a single year.

The group is widely regarded as one of Britain’s most trusted retailers.

Wolfson has been praised for his careful leadership and his comments on the health of the economy are closely watched.

When he took on the top job, he was the youngest chief executive of a FTSE 100 company, aged 33.

Wolfson, 56, is a conservative peer like his father, David, the former president of Next.