Shares in software firm Bytes Group plunged over 18 per cent on Wednesday after it said its chief executive is stepping down amid revelations that he made several trades in the company’s shares without disclosing them.
Neil Murphy, who has worked at the company since 1997, has resigned with immediate effect and the board of Bytes is looking into the secret trades.
The Surrey-based firm said Murphy’s stake remains at around 2.9m shares, in line with figures reported to the market in November last year.
Sam Mudd, an executive director at Bytes and the managing director of Phoenix Software, a subsidiary of Bytes, will take on the role of interim chief.
Bytes, which focuses on security and cloud products, tried to reassure the market, saying trading for the financial year ending February 2024 has been in line with the board’s expectations. It is on track to publish its trading update in March.
It floated on London’s FTSE 250 in December 2020 after growing rapidly in the years leading up to and during the coronavirus pandemic, cashing in on the ongoing shift to cloud computing as well as a rise in home working due to the lockdowns.