Renault to sell its stake in Daimler to reduce debt

French carmaker Renault said on Thursday it would sell all of its 1.54 percent stake in Germany’s Daimler in order to speed up de-leveraging of its automotive business.

Renault said in a statement that it would sell its 16.45 million Daimler shares through a placement to qualified investors via an accelerated book-building process.

Based on Daimler’s closing share price of 72.09 euros per share on Thursday, Renault’s stake would be worth a little more than 1.18 billion euros ($1.41 billion).