UK investment firm Downing has trimmed its stake in Braemar Shipping Services for the second time in under one month.
Downing, formed in 1986 by former NatWest Ventures executive Nick Lewis, was the largest shareholder in Braemar at the end of its last financial year.
It has been cutting its holding in the past months and its latest sale means its stake has fallen from 6.59% back in February to 3.51% today.
A filing to the London Stock Exchange on Monday showed Downing has reduced its interest to 1,104,455 shares, worth around £2m ($2.45m).
This compares with the 1,408,737 shares, equal to $4.48% of the firm, reported back in mid June.
Sources indicate the latest stock offloaded by Downing has been bought by a "top tier institutional shareholder" rather than a private individual.
TradeWinds first reported that Downing had invested in Braemar back in September 2017 with the company’s 1,538,690 shares worth a little below £5m ($6.87m) at that time.
Braemar’s latest annual report showed Downing to be its largest stakeholder on 28 February with 2,071,237 shares giving it a 6.59% slice of the company.
At that time its other top five shareholders were listed as Hargreaves Lansdown Asset Management, Chelverton Asset Management, Barclays Wealth and former executive Quentin Soanes.
Braemar shares were last traded at £1.80 each on Monday afternoon with the company’s present market capitalization at £56.59m.
This year Braemar has divested much of its technical business to Oslo-listed Aqualis in exchange for a significant stake in the firm.
In a trading update last week Braemar said shipbroking arm Braemar ACM had performed “well” and “ahead of budget” compared with the first quarter of its last fiscal year.
