OUTGOING FirstGroup chairman Martin Gilbert has sold one-third of his stake in the troubled bus and rail company as he prepares to quit after 27 years on its board.

Mr Gilbert sold 223,972 shares in the Aberdeen-based company at 108.3115p each, netting him £243,000.

The shares are equivalent to 55% of those he acquired in the recent £615 million fundraising by the group.

Mr Gilbert, retains 476,036 shares in the company with a paper value of £520,000.

With the three-for-two share issue priced at 85p, Mr Gilbert has made a profit of more than £52,000 on the shares he sold.

A chartered accountant who is the founder and chief executive of another Granite City company Aberdeen Asset Management, Mr Gilbert announced he would step down as FirstGroup chairman in May after it revealed its plans for a massive cash call.

FirstGroup, which operates buses in cities including Aberdeen and Glasgow and runs the ScotRail train franchise, said that the fundraising was needed to avoid its debt being downgraded to "junk" status which would have increased its borrowing costs.

FirstGroup was left saddled with £2 billion of debt after its purchase of US company Laidlaw, owner of Greyhound coaches, in 2007.

The problems were brought to a head by the UK Government's decision last summer to reverse the awarding of the West Coast Mainline rail franchise to FirstGroup due to flaws in the bidding process.

Shares in FirstGroup yesterday closed down 1.1p or 1% at 110.8p.

This compares to a peak of 815p in 2007.