In a regulatory filing to the London Stock Exchange, 3i said it had sold just under 20.2 million shares in Morse on 13 February.  The terms of the sale were not disclosed.

In an interim management statement earlier this month, Morse reported a 54 per cent decline in first-half pre-tax profit, posting a profit of £2.2 million ($3.2 million) for the six months to 31 December, compared to a restated figure of £4.8 million.

Morse also announced a restructuring of the firm, along with the appointment of Mike Phillips as new chief executive.

Just prior to this statement Morse said it had agreed the sale of CSTIM, its UK and Jersey investment management consultancy business, to the UK subsidiary of Navigant Consulting.

Under the terms of the deal, the maximum receivable for Morse is £1.7 million ($2.4 million), the initial consideration being £1.3 million payable in cash on completion and a further £400,000 dependent on the operating profit of CSTIM in the 12 months to the end of June 2009.

Morse said that CSTIM had significantly reduced in size and that in the last six months of 2008 the business had shown an operating loss of £44,000 – a deterioration which resulted in two rounds of redundancies in the final months of last year.

Navigant and Morse entered sales talks last summer, before the onset of the credit crisis and CSTIM’s decline in performance.  As an immediate closure of CSTIM would have incurred a cost of £750,000, Morse’s Board opted to sell the business to Navigant on the agreed terms without shareholder approval.

Morse said that no other buyer was interested in acquiring CSTIM and that Navigant would withdraw its offer if there was a delay for a shareholder vote.

CSTIM formed the largest part of Morse’s investment management consultancy business.  The remaining parts are either being closed or considered for sale and so Morse’s investment management consultancy unit is now considered discontinued, the firm said in a statement.