Zalando backers sold 7.3 pct in share placement

FRANKFURT, Germany - A group of early backers of German online fashion retailer Zalando sold 7.3 percent of shares in the company in a placement, joint bookrunner Morgan Stanley said.

Global Founders, Holtzbrinck Ventures, AI European Holdings and Rocket Internet placed 17.9 million shares in an accelerated bookbuilding at 23.75 euros per share, Morgan Stanley said, for a total of 425 million euros ($454 million).

At its 5.3 billion-euro October initial public offering, shares in Zalando were listed at 21.50 euros per share.

Global Founders is the investment vehicle of founder brothers Marc, Oliver and Alexander Samwer, through which they also hold 38 percent of Rocket Internet, the company run by Oliver Samwer.

AI European Holdings is part of Ukrainian-American billionaire Len Blavatnik's conglomerate Access Industries.

Morgan Stanley said it and the other joint bookrunners, Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse, had partially waived a lock-up agreed by the sellers in connection with Zalando's initial public offering.

Other pre-IPO shareholders and option holders not participating in the sale would also automatically be released from their lock-up obligation agreed at the IPO on a pro-rata basis for a total of 23.7 million shares, Morgan Stanley said.

Biggest shareholder Kinnevik, Bestseller Handels and founder-managers Robert Gentz and David Schneider are not selling in the placement.

They agreed to extend their lock-up commitments until June 28 for a total of 64 percent of the company.

€1 = $1.06/£0.70