, Branson’s Virgin Investments disclosed it sold about 10.4 million shares for $299.9 million through roughly a dozen transactions between Tuesday and Thursday, trimming its stake to just about 46.3 million shares, or 18% of shares outstanding.
The investment firm controlled by Branson started selling stock Tuesday at a price of $34.39, continuing through the next two days as prices slumped more than 26%. Virgin Investments also gave away nearly 58,000 shares—worth nearly $2 million—to an unnamed former employee. Shares of Virgin Galactic fell 3.4% to $25.07 in premarket trading, pushing its losses to nearly 30% from a Monday close of $35.21.
In a statement, Virgin said proceeds from the sales will “support [Virgin Group’s] portfolio of global leisure, holiday and travel businesses that continue to be affected by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, in addition to . . . the development and growth of new and existing businesses.”Virgin Galactic shares have been on a wild ride this year.