An investment firm chaired by former chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, has increased its stake in Ocado to 5%, documents have revealed.

The move by Lingotto Investment Management came a day after the online-only grocer’s shares surged by 32%, This is Money reported.

This also comes as rumours swirled that retail heavyweight Amazon could be looking at an 800p-a-share takeover bid.

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Prior to this, Ocado’s shares took a hit after a JP Morgan research note cut its target price.

Earlier this month, Ocado narrowly survived being demoted from the FTSE 100 index as its stock value more than halved in the past year.

In February, the retail tech company reported a pre-tax loss of £501m for the year to November 2022 while retail sales fell 3.8% to £2.2bn, despite record sales over Christmas.

The investment by Lingotto Investment Management comes a month after Osborne was named chairman.