Shares in Betfair fell 4.5 pence to 840 pence at 1:54 p.m., the top faller on the FTSE 250 index. The stake on sale would be worth 96 million pounds at Friday's closing price of 879.5 pence.

Simon Maughan, head of sector strategy at Olivetree Financial Group, said the holding is part of Softbank which has owned the stock since 2006, and is their entire holding, but another part of Softbank owns a further 4.8 percent.

Traders did not mention a price for the placing or whether the bookbuild had been completed.

Betfair could not immediately be reached for comment.

(Reporting by David Brett; Editing by Francesco Canepa)

Stocks treated in this article : Deutsche Bank AG, Betfair Group Ltd