Property tycoon Robert Tchenguiz shunts off £28m rail stake
Loss: Robert Tchenguiz, pictured with his sister Lisa, was hit by the market fall
Property tycoon Robert Tchenguiz has sold his multi-million pound investment in transport firm FirstGroup after being squeezed by the stock market crash.
The sale marks the end of the flamboyant businessman’s activist campaign to shake up the bus and rail company.
Last year Tchenguiz built up a 6 per cent shareholding worth around £28million in FirstGroup – one of Britain’s largest passenger transport companies – through a series of complex deals.
He called for the company to split its US business from the group and reportedly threatened to push for an extraordinary general meeting.
However, during the recent stock market rout Tchenguiz sold his investment in FirstGroup, which operates the Great Western Railway, South Western Railway and the TransPennine Express.
City sources said Tchenguiz’s brokers had pressured him into selling off his stake in a similar way to how he was forced to sell his multi-million pound shareholdings in J Sainsbury and Mitchells & Butlers during the financial crisis a decade ago.
FirstGroup shares plunged from £1.30 in February to 38.2p on Friday.