French carmaker Renault to sell its stake in Daimler to reduce debt

French carmaker Renault said on Thursday it would sell all of its 1.54% stake in Germany's Daimler in order to speed up de-leveraging of its automotive business.
 

Renault said in a statement that it would sell its 16.45 million Daimler shares through a placement to qualified investors via an accelerated bookbuilding process.
 

Based on Daimler's closing share price of 72.09 euros per share on Thursday, Renault's stake would be worth a little more than 1.18 billion euros ($1.41 billion).
 

"The industrial partnership between the Renault Group and Daimler remains unchanged and is not impacted by this financial transaction," Renault said.
 

The French carmaker, with it Japanese partner Nissan , had exchanged stakes with Daimler in 2010 to strengthen their industrial partnerships.