Kerkorian reduces stake in Ford
Kerkorian has sold more shares in Ford, reducing his stake in the US car giant to less than five per cent.
The Las Vegas billionaire said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that he sold 26.4 million shares between Oct 21 and Oct 27 at an average price of $2.01 each.
That has reduced his stake to about 107 million shares - or 4.89 per cent.
The sale of further shares is not a surprise.
Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp said last week that it intended to lower its stake in Ford, and invest in other industries such as casinos, hotels and oil and gas, where it sees more value.
The company announced Oct 21 that it had sold 7.3 million Ford shares at an average price of $2.43 each, cutting its stake to 6.1 per cent and potentially losing more than a half-billion dollars on its investment.
Kerkorian's jettisoning of Ford shares comes just four months after Tracinda purchased 20 million of the Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker's shares at market rates to boost his stake to 6.49 per cent.
Those purchases were announced two days after Kerkorian met with Ford Chief Executive Alan Mulally and Executive Chairman Bill Ford to discuss the company's turnaround plan.
A week earlier, Kerkorian had acquired another 20 million shares through a tender offer for about $US170 million ($A282.42 million), or $8.50 per share. At the time the tender offer was announced, Tracinda said it owned 100 million Ford shares at average cost of $6.91 per share.
Ford spokesman Mark Truby would not comment Tuesday on the sale other than to say Ford has to stay focused on its turnaround plan.
In July, Ford posted the worst quarterly performance in its history, losing $US8.67 billion ($A14.4 billion) in the second quarter.
The loss included $US8.03 billion ($A13.34 billion) worth of write-offs because the sharp decline in US truck and sport utility vehicle sales has reduced the value of Ford's North American truck plants and Ford Motor Credit Co's lease portfolio.
In Tuesday morning trading, shares of Ford rose 11 cents to $2.14.
Tracinda, which is named after Kerkorian's daughters, Tracy and Linda, holds the majority stake in casino and hotel operator MGM Mirage Inc.
© 2008 AP
