Kerry Media offloads 14.4pc of SCMP

Hong Kong - Kerry Media, the controlling shareholder of the SCMP Group, has sold a 14.4% stake of the company, marking its return to public ownership after more than one year.

SCMP, publisher of the South China Morning Post, last night announced its had offloaded 75 million shares to three banks with JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank and the Bank of East Asia each taking a 4.8% share of the group.

SCMP documents show the publisher raised more than HK$380 million as a result of the sale.

SCMP had been suspended from trading since 25 February last year after Kerry Media failed to acquire the 90% of SCMP shares needed to take the publishing company private.