Market report: Countryside slips after £100m sell-off

The former private-equity owner of Countryside Properties sent the housebuilder’s shares lower today when it offloaded part of its stake for more than £100 million.

Oaktree sold 45 million shares, around 10% of the company’s issued share capital, at 230p each, cashing in shares for the first time since it floated Countryside last year.

The sale, which was carried out as an accelerated bookbuild, sees the private-equity firm pocket £103.5 million, leaving it with a 46% stake.

Barclays and Numis were joint bookrunners on the sale. The slight discount dragged the share price down 2.7p to 236p.

While Donald Trump continues to power the Dow Jones to new highs, the UK’s own benchmark index, the FTSE 100, simmered around 180 points off its record high. Today, it edged 1.25 points lower to 7160.24, as a slightly weaker pound failed to lift the dollar-dominated index.

Aside from a big rise from Tesco after its takeover of Booker, it was a tale of two airlines on the Footsie.

IAG was 11.3p ahead at 502.5p as RBC Capital upgraded the British Airways owner to Sector Perform, admitting that its tip to sell the shares after Brexit had been a bad one, with the UK economy more buoyant than it expected.

Meanwhile, it was more downbeat on budget carrier easyJet, which drifted 24p lower to 971p.

The bank said the second-half outlook from the airline is too optimistic and reckons another profit warning beckons in the summer.

“We have a sense of déjà vu with easyJet. Post-first-quarter outlook implies a significant second-half profit recovery that looks optimistic to us. We think this likely means another (summer) profit cut to come,” RBC said. Goldman Sachs analysts struck a similar tone and cut their rating to Neutral.

Ukrainian iron-ore pellet producer Ferrexpo fell 1.8p to 138.4p as bankers sounded out buyers for a £100 million share sale by Dutch private equity group Cercl, a joint venture between Dutch investment firm BXR and Czech mining tycoon Zdenek Bakala.