BAKERY GROUP Aryzta fell almost 11 per cent in trading on the Iseq index yesterday after it emerged that a significant shareholder in the company was looking to sell its stake.
The Swiss-Irish company, which is listed in Dublin and Zurich, saw its share price sink €2.40 on the Iseq yesterday to close at €19.70.
Aryzta, which is the world’s biggest maker of frozen baked goods, had a weak day’s trading on both the Iseq and the Swiss stock market after Credit Suisse said it had started an accelerated sale of Lion Capital’s 5 per cent stake.
“The shares offered represent Lion Capital’s entire holding in Aryzta,” Credit Suisse said in a statement. This amounts to four million shares.
“The trade is going to happen over there so we just have a reflection of that in Dublin,” said one Dublin-based trader. The placing of the shares was understood to have been completed at the close of trading yesterday afternoon. Aryzta was formed in 2008 as the result of a merger between Irish food group IAWS and Swiss baker Hiestand. The deal was reached after IAWS ramped up its stake in Hiestand by spending €30 million on the purchase of Hiestand shares owned by Lion Capital, a London-based leveraged buyout firm.– (Additional reporting: Reuters)
