Adidas Shares Slide Amid Talk of Top Investor's Plans to Sell Part of Stake

HERZOGENAURACH, Germany – Adidas shares fell 1.5 percent on Wednesday on expectations that one of the German sportswear firm's top shareholders, Groupe Bruxelles Lambert (GBL), was preparing to sell a portion of its stake, three traders said.

Belgian investment firm GBL was placing a tenth of its 7.5 percent holding, or 1.37 million shares, at €257.75 ($292.11) on the market for sale, a 1.7 percent discount to Tuesday's closing price, the traders added.

GBL and Adidas, whose shares hit record highs on Tuesday, were not immediately available for comment.

At 0801 GMT, Adidas shares were down 2 percent at €256.9 (around $291) and lagging the broader DAX index, which was down 0.3 percent.

GBL, founded by Belgium's richest man Albert Frere, who died in December at the age of 92, first invested in Adidas in 2015 with the purchase of a 3 percent stake.

GBL also holds stakes in some of Europe's biggest companies, including Pernod Ricard, LafargeHolcim and Total.

By Thyagaraju Adinarayan, Helen Reid, Philip Blenkinsop, Emma Thomasson, Josephine Mason; editor: Alexander Smith.