Australia's richest woman Gina Rinehart has reduced her stake in Fairfax Media, offloading more than 86 million shares.
Mrs Rinehart sold 86.5 million shares worth $50.1 million, reducing her stake in the company to 15 per cent, to an Australian fund manager on Thursday.
The sale comes amid a stand-off between Mrs Rinehart and Fairfax over her push to join the company's board.
"The sale was completed to resolve an issue that arose concerning the directors and officers insurance policy, in the situation of a director having a greater than 15 per cent shareholding in Fairfax," Mrs Rinehart's private company Hancock Prospecting said in a statement.
The sale of 86.5 million Fairfax shares occurred just after the Australian stock market closed at 1600 AEST.
The shares were sold for 58 cents, just off their close of 58.5 cents.
The mining billionaire still holds about 352 million shares, or a 15 per cent stake, in Fairfax.
Mrs Rinehart had been locked in a battle with Fairfax chairman Roger Corbett over securing three board seats.
Fairfax directors wanted Mrs Rinehart to sign the media company's charter of independence before any offer to join the board was made.
They also wanted Mrs Rinehart to agree not to sue fellow board members.
Fairfax's professional insurance policy, which is designed to offer legal protection to board members, does not apply to shareholders who hold more than 15 per cent of Fairfax shares.
The Hancock Prospecting statement said that as Mr Corbett had refused to raise the 15 per cent limit, a decision had been made to sell the 86.5 million shares.
Hancock also denied reports that it was about to make a takeover offer for Fairfax.
"We continue to monitor the performance of our investment in Fairfax noting that the shares are trading at record or near record lows, which is an independent assessment of the chairman's performance," the statement said.
"We again urge the chairman to tell concerned shareholders that he will accept proposed milestones regarding his performance in the interests of Fairfax and its shareholders, or propose other reasonable KPI (key performance indicators) to meet for the continuance of his chairmanship past the AGM (annual general meeting) in November 2012."
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