Oaktree sells half of stake in Nine Entertainment Co hours after sale of events business

Major shareholder Oaktree Capital has sold half of its stake in Nine Entertainment Co for $160m taking its holding in the business to around 7 per cent.

Oaktree was one of two major shareholders in Nine along with Apollo Global Management, but had been expected to sell down its share for some time after helping to guide the company to refloat on the Australian Securities Exchange in late 2013.

The after-trading sale came on the same day Nine sold its events business Nine Live to private equity firm Affinity Equity Partners for $640m.

Nine this morning declined to comment on the sale but The Australian reports shares were sold at $2.215 each, a 1.5c discount to Nine’s closing price.