Wetherspoon boss John Hutson sells 50,000 shares

Pub chain JD Wetherspoon's chief executive John Hutson has sold over half a million pounds worth of his shares in the company.

He sold 50,000 ordinary shares at 433.1p per share. He also exercised options over 73,135 shares at prices of between 301.5p and 361p per share, and sold them all at the same price of 433.1p per share.

Following these transactions, Hutson now holds a remaining 55,451 ordinary shares in the company, representing 0.04 per cent of the total share capital.

Last week the pub chain released positive results showing that like-for-like sales in the financial year to date were up by 1.2% and overall company sales had risen by 5.2%.

It attributed the results to lower costs than expected in areas such as energy, labour and marketing and anticipates reporting operating margins for the second half of the financial year of at least 10% higher than previous expectations.

This year, Wetherspoon has opened 33 pubs, closed two and expects six further pub launches by the end of the year.

"As a result of the performance of our pubs, and the full year effect of pubs opened this year, combined with lower costs in areas such as utilities, the board is optimistic about prospects for the next financial year," said the group's finance director Keith Down.

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By Emma White

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