FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - The announcement of the sale of a substantial block of shares in Atoss Software by the company's founder triggered sharp price losses at times on Thursday. At the start of trading, the securities of the human resources software specialist sank by almost eleven percent. Later in the morning they recovered somewhat, but ultimately lost another seven percent to 199 euros. They thus remained below the 21-day line at around 205 euros, below which they had fallen this morning. This moving line signals the short-term trend.

However, the fact that the shares were not simply sold off, but that Atoss has entered into a partnership with a "growth investor" with this step, as Jefferies analyst Henrik Paganetty puts it, is probably increasingly coming into focus.

Selling pressure nonetheless arose because the U.S. investor General Atlantic received around 20 percent of the share capital at a discount of almost 13 percent to the volume-weighted average price of the 180 trading days since September 30, 2022. In addition, General Atlantic can acquire up to another nearly 5 percent of the shares from majority owner AOB Invest GmbH, which is controlled by founder and Atoss CEO Andreas Obereder.

As a consolation, one trader pointed out that the share price has after all almost doubled since last fall. Since the beginning of the year, even with the current losses, the share price has still gained 43 percent, which means that the stock is still one of the best performers in the 70-strong SDax index.

Analyst Paganetty emphasized that AOB Invest will remain the largest shareholder even if the options are exercised. In addition, the Jefferies expert recalled the temporary double-digit jump in the share price on November 21, 2022, after the news agency Bloomberg had headlined that Atoss founder Obereder was "considering options for the company", which also included a sale. In Paganetty's view, therefore, the partnership with "growth investor" General Atlantic now announced this Thursday could be a fitting move./ck/tih/mis