GARTMORE, the British Fund management group, which was the biggest shareholder in CRH until recently, has sold over £100 million worth of CRH shares.

A disclosure to the stock exchange shows that Gartmore now holds 9.7 million CRH shares - down from 31.9 million shares less than a year ago.

It is understood that Gartmore which bought into CRH about two years ago at prices of around 230p - has sold the 22 million shares over the past weeks to other overseas investors.

During this period, CRH shares have been trading between 500p and 530p, supported by strong demand from overseas investors.

There was no comment from CRH yesterday, but market sources believe that, while heavy selling by a major shareholder might seem to be a negative for the shares, the contrary is the case in the Gartmore/CRH situation.

During a period when over 22 million shares were being sold by a single shareholder, the CRH share price still held up firmly and market sources said there were no difficulties finding buyers for the Gartmore shares.

The original 9 per cent stake in CRH was an overweight position for a fund like Gartmore, and a sale of a substantial portion of the shareholding was an event waiting to happen, sources said.

With Gartmore's 22 million shares now in the hands of other overseas investors, 40 per cent of CRH shares are still held overseas. "It's better for the shares to be held by a wider number of institutions than have such a large chunk being held by one investor," said one market source.