Macquarie Group Limited (Macquarie) has completed the sale of its 11.3% principal holding in Macquarie Atlas Roads (MQA), a listed investment company. Macquarie sold 76 million shares in MQA at a price of US$6.00 per share to a wide range of institutional investors via a bookbuild. The total value of the sale is US$456 million.

This follows Macquarie's sale of 53 million shares in September 2016. Those shares were sold for US$5.32 each to undisclosed institutional investors.

MQA announced that following a strategic review of its relationship with Macquarie, management functions would be internalised. This was described as being in the best interests of security holders.

MQA chairs Nora Scheinkestel and Jeff Conyers commented through a joint statement to ASX:

"The relationship with Macquarie has served securityholders' interests well. Under Macquarie's active management, MQA has delivered investors a compound annual return of approximately 37% over nearly eight years since listing, transforming MQA from a market capitalisation of $278 million to a top 100 ASX listed investment company with a market capitalisation of $4 billion.

The time has come for MQA to build its own internal management capability. The independent directors will work with Macquarie to progress the steps required to complete the transaction in a way that is in the best interests of securityholders."