The Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) initiated a sale of about 20 million shares in the Mercedes-Benz group, almost a quarter of its stake – after the luxury automaker’s share almost quadrupled over the course of the pandemic in the last 3 years,
According to a statement published by Bloomberg, the General Authority for Investment will own about 53 million shares after finalizing the share offering, part of an effort to diversify its portfolio. With a ‘guided’, or ‘indicative’ price of €69.27, the stake value offered would be about €1.4 billion ($1.5 billion). Mercedes have been trading near an all-time high after the shares closed up 0.6% at €71.89 on Tuesday in Frankfurt. The carmaker’s CEO Ola Kallenius has focused on more profitable segments and reduced its offering of entry-level models, resulting in a 43% surge in the average price of a Mercedes since 2019.
Bloomberg’s data states that Kuwait is Mercedes’ third-largest holder, owning a substantial 6.8% of Mercedes. The Kuwait Investment Authority, a long-standing shareholder of Mercedes for 50 years, is the oldest and one of the largest wealth funds in the world.
