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		</div><p><a href="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/stake-sale-hits-ocado-share-price.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full" title="Ocado saw its shares tumble after John Lewis Partnership's pension fund confirmed the sale of its 10 per cent stake in the group" src="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/min-stake-sale-hits-ocado-share-price.jpg" alt="Ocado saw its shares tumble after John Lewis Partnership's pension fund confirmed the sale of its 10 per cent stake in the group"/></a></p>
<p>Online grocer Ocado saw its shares tumble after John Lewis Partnership&#8217;s pension fund confirmed the sale of its 10% stake in the group.</p>
<p>John Lewis offloaded the shares for around £152 million or 265p each, 7% lower than Thursday&#8217;s price and sending the stock down by 17%.</p>
<p>Ocado said the sale did not impact its commercial relationship with John Lewis-owned supermarket Waitrose, having signed a new 10-year delivery deal in May last year. John Lewis said the move was part of its pension fund review process.</p>
<p>It had already sold half its previous stake at the time of Ocado&#8217;s stock market flotation last July, but was restricted from selling the remainder until Ocado&#8217;s recent full-year results.</p>
<p>The shares tumble follows a recent strong run for Ocado, with persistent takeover rumours helping the stock recover strongly after a shaky start to life as a public company.</p>
<p>It was forced to slash its float price to 180p on concerns over valuation, and then languished in the red, slipping to as low as 120.9p in October.</p>
<p>But shares climbed as high as 290p during trading on Thursday, and retail analyst Nick Bubb said the John Lewis sale has &#8220;tested the appetite&#8221; for the stock.</p>
<p>There are fears the stake sale will pave the way for Waitrose to compete harder in London with Ocado, having just started its own rival delivery operation within the M25.</p>
<p>&#8220;But we think this is a red herring and Ocado has been quick to point out that its commercial relationship with Waitrose won&#8217;t be affected by the decision of the John Lewis pension fund to bank its profits,&#8221; added Mr Bubb.</p>
<p>The sale is also seen as a positive for Ocado in the long-run, as it will free up its shareholder base, which had seen 10 investors hold around 80% of the equity. But it is unclear who the shares have been sold to at this stage.</p>
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