Fresh from the successful Shaftesbury placing, JP Morgan Cazenove now seems to be seeking buyers for shares in Carphone Warehouse and storage group Big Yellow.
Caz is said to be placing about 11.45m shares in Big Yellow - now down 22p at 316p - and 24m in Carphone, 8.75p lower at 162.25p.
Traders said the Big Yellow stake equated to the 9.02% stake held by David Ross, the multimillionaire founder of Carphone Warehouse, and drew the obvious conclusion. By extension, the Carphone sale was also linked with part of Ross's 19.4% shareholding.
Late last year, Ross admitted that he used his personal shareholdings in four businesses as security for millions of pounds worth of personal loans, but failed to notify his fellow board members, in breach of stock exchange rules.
The admission had immediate repercussions. He resigned as deputy chairman of Carphone Warehouse, which he helped set up with schoolfriend Charles Dunstone, as well as giving up his chairmanship of National Express, whose shares he also used to back bank loans. He also quit his prestigious role advising London mayor Boris Johnson on the 2012 Olympics.
