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Sainsbury’s share price has dropped 4% this morning after the Qatari sovereign wealth fund laid out plans to sell a significant chunk of its stake in the business, in a move that will end its status as the supermarket’s biggest investor.
The fund plans to sell hundreds of millions of pounds worth in Sainsbury’s stock, cutting its stake in the retailer from 10.5% to about 7%. It will mark the end of the Qatar Investment Authority’s long reign as the biggest single investor in the business, having sat in the top spot since it first bought Sainsbury’s shares in 2007.
Today we have reached another significant milestone for Smiths, with the agreement to sell Smiths Detection to CVC for an enterprise value of £2.0bn. This builds on our recently announced sale of Smiths Interconnect and demonstrates strong execution against the strategic actions we set out in January centred on value creation.
We are focusing Smiths as a premium industrial engineering company specialising in flow management and thermal solutions, and today’s announcement positions us strongly to deliver enhanced growth and returns.
