Fortescue shares tank after reports of JPMorgan-led $1.9b selldown
Make us a preferred source
Make us a preferred source on Google
The news: Shares in Fortescue Metals dived on the ASX after media reports claimed that JPMorgan was looking to sell $1.9 billion of discounted stock in the mining group on behalf of an unnamed institutional investor.
The numbers: Fortescue shares were 8.9% lower at $18.53 at 10:50am AEST.
On Monday, The Australian Financial Review and The Australian reported that JPMorgan's equity capital markets team was offering Fortescue shares between $18.55 and $19.10 — well below Monday's closing price of $20.35 — with bids being accepted in increments of 5 cents after the market closed.
The selldown on Andrew Forrest's mining group reportedly consisted of around 100 million securities, or about 3.2% of the shares on issue.
The context: The media reports flagged that the block trade was due to an "undisclosed" institutional investor offloading the shares via JPMorgan, with suggestions that US fund manager The Capital Group was the unnamed vendor.
The sources: AFR, The Australian
