Bumble sinks after placing upsized secondary offering at big discount

By Geoffrey Smith 

Investing.com -- Bumble (NASDAQ:BMBL) stock slumped in premarket trading on Friday after the dating app company's biggest shareholders cashed out more than had initially been expected.  

Bumble said its founder and Chief Executive Whitney Wolfe Herd, Blackstone (NYSE:BX) and other shareholders offloaded a total of $313 million in stock at a price of $22.80 a share, some 9.2% below Thursday's close of $24.54. Another $47M in stock has been earmarked for over-allocation purposes. 

Bumble had said in an initial announcement on Thursday evening that it would sell only 12.5 million shares, but subsequently raised that to 13.75 million. The bulk of the placement came from Blackstone Group, with Herd cashing out just under 2 million shares. 

The placement comes a couple of days after Bumble published an upbeat outlook for the coming year, predicting an underlying operating profit as it grows its female-driven dating sites into new markets in Europe and Latin America.

The group's revenue was up 17% on the year in the fourth quarter at $242M, despite headwinds from the dollar's strength. The main Bumble dating site posted an even more impressive 28% rise in revenue, adding 2.2 million to its paying subscriber base.

By 08:15 ET (13:15 GMT), Bumble stock was down 6.7%, on course to open at a low for the week - albeit comfortably above last year's all-time low of $15.41.