Food and drink manufacturer Unilever has had nearly £181m ($232m) worth of shares sold by major shareholder, Nelson Peltz’s Trian Fund Management.

About 3.8m shares have been offloaded by the investment group, which had previously held a 1.47% stake, or 36.6m shares, valued at $1.8bn.

It is understood that Trian now holds 32.6m shares, in a move dubbed by the hedge fund as for “portfolio management purposes”.

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The new move follows Peltz endorsing the appointment of new CEO Hein Schumacher in 2023, shortly after the hedge fund first started building its stake in Unilever.

Since then, Unilever shares have soared by almost 30%, and have surged more than 23% so far this year, bolstered by the FMCG exceeding its half-year profit expectations.

Since Schumacher’s appointment, Unilever has also seen a series of strategic moves at the London listed company, including the axing of 7,500 staff, the offloading of its ice cream division and rumours that Schumacher is mulling relocating its London headquarters to the Netherlands.