(Reuters) - Leucadia National Corp LUK.N, the parent of Jefferies Group LLC, said on Monday it would sell stakes in two non-financial companies for about $1.33 billion and reorganize its operations to focus on investment banking and advisory services.
Shares of Leucadia, which will rename itself Jefferies Financial Group Inc, rose 12.8 percent to $24.56 at mid-afternoon.
Leucadia National, which models itself on Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc BRKa.N and owns companies ranging from real estate to mining, bought reut.rs/2H8D4vX Jefferies Group Inc in 2012 for $2.76 billion.
Jefferies Financial Group will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker “JEF” after shareholders approve the name change.
The company, which will offer investment banking, capital markets and merchant banking services, will continue to use the Leucadia name in its asset management and merchant banking services.
Leucadia’s Jefferies unit usually flags off the earnings season for U.S. banks.
Jefferies in late March reported reut.rs/2H2kMwH a first-quarter net loss of $60.8 million, compared with a profit of $114 million a year earlier.
Leucadia said it would sell a 48 percent stake in National Beef to Brazilian food processing company Marfrig for about $900 million in cash, and all its stake in auto dealership services provider Garcadia to the Garff family for $425 million. reut.rs/2H4hMjn.
The company said expected a pre-tax gain of up to $1.2 billion from the transactions.
Leucadia also doubled its share buyback authorization to 25 million shares.
Reporting By Aparajita Saxena in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber and Sriraj Kalluvila
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