Guinness Peat Group, the investment company winding up its portfolio, sold its 19.4 per cent stake in Turners Auctions in an off-market transaction to investors including Milford Asset Management.
GPG sold 5.3 million shares in the auctioneer today, according to a statement to the NZX. The shares dropped 6.9 per cent to $1.35 today and earlier were at $1.33, valuing the stake at $7 million.
A spokesman for GPG said the sale was to "a range of players" including Milford. Under NZX disclosure rules, GPG named Milford as a party it believed would need to make its own disclosure in relation to a substantial holding. Milford managing director Anthony Quirk wasn't immediately available to comment.
GPG is in the process of winding itself down after several of years of underperformance, and shareholders voted for the firm to return capital at their annual meeting in June, the first and likely only one to be held in New Zealand.
Shares of GPG fell 2.5 per cent to 58 cents.
