Bahrain-based Investcorp has placed its 9.3 per cent stake in Leica Geosystems Holding in a block sale through Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB). Swiss-based Leica says that after the transaction which closed on 18 September, CSFB sold the shares within 24 hours to about 20 international investors. The largest remaining shareholder is now company employees and management, with 8.3 per cent, and the US technology investment group J&W Seligman Company, with 5.1 per cent.

The placement follows Investcorp's July sale of its majority stake in the Swiss firm through an initial public offering (IPO) on the Swiss stock exchange. Following the IPO, Investcorp was obliged to retain a 9.3 per cent stake in the company for at least six months and Philip Yea, Investcorp board member and outgoing chairman of Leica, was obliged to remain on the Leica board for at least 12 months.

Investcorp purchased Leica in 1998 from Lancet Investments of the Netherlands in a deal estimated to have been worth $313 million (MEED 4:8:00; 18:9:98).