Quintiles shareholders selling more than $500 million in stock

Four private equity firms that own major stakes in Quintiles are selling more than $500 million worth of company stock.

The Durham-based pharmaceutical services company announced late Thursday that the four firms plan to sell 7 million shares of stock, which have been priced at $77.85 per share, in a secondary offering. Quintiles won't receive any proceeds from the sale.

The four firms are Bain Capital, TPG Global, 3i and Temasek. They have been steadily selling their shares since Quintiles went public at $40.

The company’s shares have appreciated considerably since its initial public offering. Shares were trading Friday morning at $77.03, down $1.69. Its shares are up 31 percent this year.

This latest sale will reduce the firms’ collective ownership stake in the business to 29.4 percent, down from 34.3 percent. Before Quintiles went public, they owned 70.6 percent of Quintiles.

Morgan Stanley is underwriting the secondary offering, which is expected to close next week.

Quintiles is the world’s largest contract research organization. CROs help pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies design and monitor clinical trials of experimental drugs and analyze the results.

Quintiles has 122.7 million shares outstanding.

This story was originally published July 31, 2015 at 10:00 AM with the headline "Quintiles shareholders selling more than $500 million in stock."