Maersk, which has been reducing its holdings in Total over the past year, says it sold shares worth about $1 billion.
A.P. Møller – Mærsk said it has sold additional shares in the French oil company Total S.A.
Maersk acquired 97.5 million shares in Total as part of its sale of Maersk Oil to Total, a deal it announced in 2017 and closed in March 2018.
Since then it has been reducing its holdings in the oil company. For example, its annual report mentions that in 2018, A.P. Møller – Mærsk sold 51.25 million Total S.A. shares, generating a cash flow of $3 billion. And the annual report mentioned it had continued to sell shares this year.
Maersk Oil Trading and Investments (MOTI) said Tuesday in a press release that it was offering its entire stake of 17,272,593 ordinary shares in Total for sale to institutional investors.
On Wednesday it put out a second press release that it had sold the shares through an “accelerated book-building process” and that gross proceeds were 884 million euros, equal to about 51.18 euros per share. At current exchange rates that is about $1 billion.
