Malaysia Star, Malaysia
Dec 31 2008
Kerkorian sells off all of his Ford shares
DETROIT: Billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian has sold off all of his
remaining shares of Ford Motor Co, completing a retreat from a high
profile stake in the No. 2 US automaker that cost him hundreds of
millions of dollars.
A spokeswoman for Kerkorian’s investment firm, Tracinda Corp, said
that the firm’s remaining Ford shares had been sold. A spokesman for
Ford had no comment on the development. Tracinda, which briefly ranked
as Ford’s largest outside investor, said in a regulatory filing in
October that it had begun working with bankers to sell the 133.5
million shares of Ford it still held at that time.
Kerkorian, 91, previously held a nearly 10% stake in General Motors
Corp and made a failed bid for Chrysler LC last year.
Since October, he has been cutting his losses on a US$1bil investment
in Ford that had lost most of its value. It was not immediately clear
when Tracinda had completed those remaining sales of Ford stock over
the past two months.
It was not immediately clear how deep Kerkorian’s losses on the Ford
investment were. But even if Tracinda sold all its remaining shares at
the recent high for Ford stock, the firm would have been facing a loss
of some US$475mil based on its average acquisition cost for the
shares. ` Reuters