Repsol sells €1.3bn of its own shares Repsol has sold €1.3bn of its own shares to institutional investors less than a month after buying them in a rescue deal with its heavily indebted shareholder Sacyr Vallehermoso. Repsol, which in December bought half of Sacyr's 20 per cent stake to stave off the construction group toppling into a messy default, said that it had placed the shares to various investors in a so-called accelerated book build. Repsol sold just over 61m shares, or five per cent of the company, at a price of €22.35 each, compared with the €21.06 it paid Sacyr in December, representing a 6 per cent profit in less than a month. The shares had closed on Tuesday at €23.72. Sacyr, which used debt to purchase a stake in the oil group as a diversification strategy at the height of Spain's construction boom, remains Repsol's second-largest investor with a 10 per cent holding. The builder, led by then chairman and co-founder Luis Del Rivero, had been embroiled in a bitter feud with Antonio Brufau, Repsol's executive chairman, over his strategy of investing in oil exploration rather than increasing dividends. Mr Del Rivero, who had masterminded the debt-funded bet on Repsol only to see the value of the stake collapse during the financial crisis, was last year ousted from the company as Sacyr's debt negotiation with its banks began to stall. Sacyr had previously formed a shareholder pact with Pemex, Mexico's state oil company and Repsol investor, to exert more influence on Mr Brufau, but the pact was dissolved after Sacyr was forced to sell its stake. Before selling half of its shares back to Repsol, Sacyr had contacted various strategic buyers, including China's Sinopec, but ran out of time to complete a sale as the deadline to repay some of its lending banks approached. Repsol has said it intends to sell on all of the stake either in parts to institutional investors, or to a strategic buyer in the short to medium term, meaning the remaining 5 per cent of the ex-Sacyr shares could weigh on its share price, according to analysts. "Repsol's shares will now struggle to perform until the remaining 5 per cent shares are placed, as the investors" base case scenario should shift to another market placement at a later stage," said analysts at Espirito Santo. That said, we believe that this move allows Repsol to solve part of the problem raised by Sacyr and reduce the risk on its balance sheet, which is positive in our view given the uncertain outlook for financial markets. Trading in Repsol shares were suspended by the Spanish market regulator in early Wednesday trading ahead of the placing being completed. The sale was arranged by BBVA, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and UBS.