OneSavings Bank shares sink after JC Flowers flogs a 10 per cent stake for £96m

Shares in challenger OneSavings Bank slipped nearly six per cent this morning after one of its cornerstone investors flooded the market by selling a 10 per cent slice of the firm.

US private equity behemoth JC Flowers sold 24.3m shares at 395p each, returning £96m to the fund.

Shares in OneSavings dipped below 400p and were trading at 398p at 10:00am.

Read more: OneSavings boss: If Co-op Bank sale fails we’ll pick up the pieces

JC Flowers, backed and founded by US billionaire Christopher Flowers, was instrumental in right-sizing Kent Reliance Building Society, which was transferred into a new shell of what was to become OneSavings in 2011.

Flowers provided £50m of capital in return for 40 per cent stake in the mutual. It contributed a further £45m of financing over the following three years prior to OneSavings’ float in 2014. Prior to going public the US fund had a 97 per cent interest in OneSavings.

Analysts at Peel Hunt saw the positives in the JC Flowers exit, saying it offered “good upside”.

Anthony Da Costa upgraded Peel Hunt’s profit forecasts by 22 per cent and increased its target price to 485p.