The 25m shares represent 7.4% of Liberty International’s issued share capital

They were sold at 1350p after a rapid book-building exercise managed by Merrill Lynch and UBS yesterday.

The placing price was at a 4.5% discount to Liberty’s 1414p share price at the close of trading on Monday. 1.4m of the shares were placed with members of the family of life president, Sir Donald Gordon.

The proceeds will be used to finance its development pipeline and the £421m acquisition of Covent Garden by subsidiary Capital & Counties.