Shares in Ocado plummeted 17.2% this morning (11 February) on news that the John Lewis Partnership pension trust sold its remaining stake in the UK-based online grocer.

The pension fund informed the Ocado board that it would look to sell a proportion of its shareholding at the time of the grocer’s GBP800m (US$1.28bn) float last July. The fund sold around half of its original stake when the stock floated, although a “lock-in” agreement prevented any further share sales, which expired last month.

In a statement this morning (11 February), the pension trust said it has now sold its entire stake of 57.3m shares in Ocado. The firm added that it has arranged for investment bank Goldman Sachs to sell the shares to a range of institutional investors.

As a result, John Lewis has said that its representative Patrick Lewis has offered his resignation from Ocado’s board with immediate effect.

Ocado shares had dropped 17.2% to 235.90 pence at 10:47 GMT today.

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