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Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Kerkorian Sells Part of Ford Stake, Mulls Selling it All

Ken Sweet

FOXBusiness

Ford’s Motor Co.’s (F) largest individual shareholder outside the Ford family, Kirk Kerkorian, sold 7.3 million shares and may unload the rest of his stake in the struggling auto maker in the future.

The news sent the No. 2 auto maker's shares down nearly 4%.

This comes after Ford shares fell to a multi-decade low in recent days on concerns the global credit crunch and reduced consumer spending would severely impact Ford's ability to turn itself around.

Kerkorian’s investment firm, Tracinda, said in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission that its one-day sale of 7.3 million shares brings its Ford stake down to 6.09%, or approximately 133.5 million shares. It sold the stock “in light of current economic and market conditions,” according to the SEC filing.

The investment firm said it sees “unique value” in the gaming, hospitality and oil and gas industries, and plans to pull out of Ford and re-diversify into those sectors. According to the filing with the SEC, Kerkorian may liquidate his entire state in Ford in the future at a loss.

Kerkorian’s investment firm bought its massive stake in Ford earlier this year at around $8.50 a share. The billionaire investor has taken large stakes in automotive companies before, most notably owning a nearly 10% in General Motors (GM) a few years ago.