J Sainsbury PLC (LSE:SBRY) woke up to a jolt on Wednesday as its shares slipped 4% to 312.4p in early trading.
The drop came as Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund revealed plans to trim its long-held stake in the UK’s second-largest supermarket, a quiet end to an era that began in 2007, when the fund briefly held a quarter of the company and toyed with a takeover.
According to a term sheet, Qatar Investment Authority is offering stock at 317.6p in a secondary sale handled by JPMorgan as sole bookrunner.
The move would cut its holding from 10.48% to 6.82% and raise about £265.5 million, pushing the investor down from Sainsbury’s biggest shareholder to its fourth.
It follows a similar step last October, when the fund sold roughly 5% of the company in a near $400 million disposal.
The timing is notable: Sainsbury’s shares have climbed 23% this year and closed at 326p on Tuesday.
The grocer has been building momentum, with UK market share hitting a near-decade high of 15.3% and guidance for retail underlying operating profit of more than £1 billion in the year to March 2026
. Investors, though, are recalibrating as Qatar reduces its long-standing grip.