Following the sale of his stake in Mitchells & Butlers, entrepreneur Robert Tchenguiz is now bailing out of J. Sainsbury.
The troubled Icelandic bank Kaupthing - who have been backing Tchenguiz - is currently placing his 10% stake - 168m shares - at 250p a share, a hefty discount to the prevailing price.
Sainsbury, which issued a reasonable trading statement this morning although it warned of the difficult consumer environment, is now down 19.25p at 295.5p.
Earlier it emerged that Tchenguiz had sold his 25% stake in M&B, up 3.75p at 167.25p.
It is believed that Kaupthing was holding the M&B shares as collateral in return for providing funding to Tchenguiz. Following the problems in Iceland it called in the loan, but ended up selling the shares instead. A similar situation seems to have occurred at Sainsbury.
Computer games group SCi Entertainment has also fallen, down 2.75p at 24.5p on concern that the Tchenguiz stake in the company could also be on the block.
