Billionaire Kirk Kerkorian Dumps all his Ford (F) shares

Kirk Kerkorian had as much as 6% of the outstanding float in Ford Motor (NYSE:F), more than 1.3 million shares.  Today the Kirkster said he's done with Ford, he's sold it all.  The tally?  Facing a loss of some $475 million, but it could be even worse than that.

A spokeswoman for Kerkorian's investment firm, Tracinda Corp, said that the firm's remaining Ford shares had been sold. A spokesman for Ford had no comment on the development.

Tracinda, which briefly ranked as Ford's largest outside investor, said in a regulatory filing in October that it had begun working with bankers to sell the 133.5 million shares of the No. 2 U.S. automaker it still held at that time.

It was not immediately clear when Tracinda had completed those remaining sales of Ford stock over the past two months.

The pullout from Ford by Kerkorian caps a two-year period during which the activist investor took a run at all three Detroit-based car companies as they struggled to restructure.

It was not immediately clear how deep Kerkorian's losses on the Ford investment were. But even if Tracinda sold all its remaining shares at the recent high for Ford stock, the firm would have been facing a loss of some $475 million based on its average acquisition cost for the shares, now that's Ford Tough!

SOURCE: http://uk.reuters.com/article/mnaNewsConsumerGoodsAndRetail/idUKN2931718420081229