Liverpool City Council is selling half of its shares in Liverpool John Lennon Airport, the ECHO can reveal.
At a cabinet meeting at the end of last month, with press and the public excluded, members agreed a plan to dispose of half of the council's current 20 % equity state in the airport.
The move will mean that the authority will still have a 10% stake in the Speke transport hub - which it invested £12 million in back in 2016.
The move formed part of Mayor Joe Anderson's Invest to Earn strategy, which he has championed as a way of providing cash for a council that has been so badly battered by government funding cuts.
The ECHO understands that the council is hoping to raise around £10m from the share sale - having already made the cash back on its initial investment.
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In minutes from the cabinet meeting, held on April 26, it states that the council will sell £5.98m of its preference shares (reducing from 50% to 10% of total preferred equity).
Mayor Anderson said he did not wish to comment on the situation at this moment because it is still commercially sensitive at this stage.
The ECHO understands that a number of groups were interested in purchasing the airport's shares.
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The Speke airport opened in 1933. Its historic terminal still survives as an hotel, with its current terminal first opening in 1986.
It was renamed after John Lennon in 2002. Last year 5.1m passengers used the airport - up 3% on the previous year and the highest figure for seven years.
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The majority of the airport is owned by the sprawling Peel group, whose other interests include the Port of Liverpool.
Companies House shows Joe Anderson is a director of Liverpool Airport (Intermediate) No.1 Ltd.The majority of shares in that company are owned by Liverpool Airport Holdings Ltd, another Peel group company.
The holding company reported a £1.9m loss for the year ending March 2018, an improvement on the £2.5m loss of a year earlier.
It also reported a net debt of £45m.
But the group said it was operating comfortably within its bank debt.
