Michael Spencer, chief executive of Icap, sold £49.5m ($78m) of shares in the biggest inter-dealer broker on the day the company reported record profits.

Icap said on Tuesday that underlying profits rose 5 per cent to £346m in the year to March, beating analysts’ expectations. That day, Mr Spencer sold 12.7m of the 130.8m shares he owned for 390p a share, the company said on Thursday.