Promethean, an investment fund which helped Cambria Automobiles founder Mark Lavery get his business off the ground, has announced it wants to sell its remaining stake.

The fund, which has a residual 33% stake in Cambria after most of stake was released in the dealer group's flotation on the Alternate Investment Market (AIM) last year, is locked in to Cambria until June 2012 as part of flotation.

However Promethean told the London Stock Exchange yesterday it is planning to seek Cambria's consent to exit in whole or part ahead of the lock-in restriction, which would mean selling the shareholding onto the stock market.

The sale would form part of several actions publicly-listed Promethean proposes to appease its own shareholders, one of which has recently called for the sacking its chairman, former HBOS executive Sir Peter Burt, and who is also a non-executive director of Cambria.

Michael Burt, another Promethean director, is also a non-executive director at Cambria.

In a statement, Cambria confirmed it is in discussions with Promethean regarding the share lock-ins.

"However, no decision has been made by Cambria as to whether or not to release Promethean from the share lock-ins.

"Furthermore, to avoid any conflict of interest arising, Sir Peter Burt and Michael Burt have agreed not to participate in any discussions or decision of the Board of Cambria regarding the share lock-ins," it continued.

 A further announcement regarding the share lock-ins is expected in due course.