Qatar dumps Sainsbury's stake with Royal Mail owner to become biggest investor

[Dano boy]

Qatar's sovereign wealth fund plans to offload a sizeable chunk of its stake in Sainsbury's.

The $270million (£203million) share sale, which is being handled by JP Morgan, will see Czech billionaire and Royal Mail owner Daniel Křetínský become Sainsbury's largest shareholder.

It will also spell the end of Qatar sovereign wealth fund's near two decade run as the largest shareholder in the British supermarket chain.

In a stock market statement posted after markets closed on Tuesday, the Qatar Investment Authority said it planned to offload up to 83.6million shares in Sainsbury's via a placing.

After the share sale, the Qatar Investment Authority's stake in Sainsbury's will be reduced from 10.5 per cent to just under seven per cent. The fund will drop to the fourth-largest shareholder from first place.

Qatar's sovereign wealth fund has been a Sainsbury's shareholder since 2007. In 2007 its holding peaked at 25 per cent and it subsequently abandoned a potential bid for the supermarket chain in the same year. It started selling its shares in the chain in 2021. Qatar Investment Authority plans to offer shares at 317.6p per share in a secondary offering with JPMorgan as the sole bookrunner, according to the term sheet published this week. Sainsbury's shares are up 23 per cent this year and closed at 326p on Tuesday.

The price of the retailer’s shares, as well as the final number to be sold, will be determined via a bookbuilding process, which will begin immediately, the Qatar Investment Authority said.

In October 2024, Qatar's sovereign wealth fund cut its holding in Sainsbury's by around 5 per cent via a share sale. https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/mar ... estor.html

[Dano boy]

Call me sceptical but I can now see RM drivers soon deliver Sainsbury's items as part of their daily routes . Artic drivers in particular?

As we all said watch as RM is split up and logistics are involved in supermarket runs