BILLIONAIRE BUSINESSMAN DENIS O’Brien has diluted his holding in Aer Lingus, selling around €4.7 million worth of shares in the airline.

The Cork-born tycoon now owns just over 2.4% of the company after reducing the amount of shares he owns from 16,808,822 down to 12,758,822.

According to a market statement released by Aer Lingus earlier this week, the deal was executed on July 31, when the share price was around €1.33.

The airline also awarded a total of 532,355 shares to departing chief executive Christoph Mueller, under the company’s Long Term Incentive Plan.

The award to Mueller, who announced last month that he will leave the airline in May 2015 after five years in charge, was recommended by the remuneration committee of the Aer Lingus board in August.

The German has been credited with a major turnaround in fortunes at the airline, although in recent months he has come up against industrial relations woes and a larger problem with pension provisions at the airline.

Bernard Bot, who recently joined the carrier as chief financial officer from TNT express, was also provisionally awarded 401,548 shares in the company “in respect of the performance period ending 31 December 2016.”

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