QBE exits AUB's shareholder register

QBE has sold 3.3 million AUB shares for $42.2m, or $12.65 a share, via Macquarie's equities desk.

The shares, trading at $12.46 soon after the trade, were picked up by a number of institutional investors, and represented 5.2% of AUB's issued equity.

QBE withdrew from the AUB's shareholder register a decade after the insurer's then-CEO Frank O'Halloran bought a strategic 14.9% stake into what was then Austbrokers Holdings in Feb. 2007; and a year after it reduced its holding by 9%, at $10.70 a share, Street Talk reported.

The trade follows Allianz Australia's sale of its own 5.3% stake in the ASX-listed broker, at $12.65 a share, also via Macquarie's equities desk.