THE former chief operating officer of Jefferson Smurfit Group, Mr Howard Kilroy, has sold almost £1.4 million worth of Smurfit shares on the market.

Mr Kilroy disclosed yesterday that he sold 800,000 shares at 170p each on Thursday, a move that reduces his stake in the packaging group to 8.75 million shares or 0.81 per cent of the total equity. Mr Kilroy is a nonexecutive director of Smurfit and is also governor of the Bank of Ireland and a director of CRH.

Speaking to the The Irish Times, Mr Kilroy said: "I'm a long term holder of Smurfit shares, I have been for 20 years and I intend to remain a long term holder." He emphasised that he has no plans to sell, any more Smurfit shares and added that his decision to sell the 800,000 shares was "driven by personal liquidity".

Mr Kilroy said the timing of his share disposal at 170p was dictated by the timing of the recent JS Corp results.

Under Stock Exchange rules, company directors can only trade in the company's shares at specific periods - usually following interim and preliminary results. In Smurfit's case, this "window of opportunity" also applies to JS Corp results, given the significance of JS Corp is Smurfit's overall operations.

Even after the sale of the 800,000 shares, Mr Kilroy with his 8.75 million shares is still the third biggest non institutional shareholder in Smurfit.

Smurfit chairman, Dr Michael Smurfit, remains the biggest individual shareholder with 54.6 million shares while non executive director Peter Gleeson has 14 million shares.