Liberty Global halves ITV stake in portfolio shift

(Reuters) -ITV shares slid by more than 12% on Wednesday after Liberty Global, the British broadcaster's largest shareholder, halved its stake to about 5%.

Liberty Global Ventures sold 193.4 million ITV shares to institutional investors in a block trade, a bookrunner said, raising about 135 million pounds ($181 million).

Liberty Global was "disposing of certain assets while prioritizing our scale-based investments", a spokesperson said, as flagged in its first-quarter earnings release.

"As part of that process, we are divesting part of our stake in ITV," the spokesperson said.

ITV's shares were down 8.5% in mid-morning trades after the sale. Specialist investment firm Redwheel now becomes the largest ITV shareholder with a 6% stake, LSEG data shows.

Liberty Global's stake sale, at an undisclosed price through an accelerated bookbuild process, comes at a crucial time for the broadcaster as it tackles challenges stemming from streaming rivals and a weak advertising market. 

In July, ITV posted a 7% decline in its total advertising revenue for the first half of the year, although it was less than analysts' consensus of an 8% fall.

Liberty Global has agreed to a 60-day lock-up period on further ITV share sales. BNP Paribas and Deutsche Numis were joint global coordinators and bookrunners on the placing.

($1 = 0.7451 pounds)

(Reporting by Yamini Kalia in Bengaluru and Paul Sandle in London; Editing by Janane Venkatraman, Subhranshu Sahu and Alexander Smith)