Dawnay, Day, the troubled property to banking conglomerate, has placed two of its property companies in administration as its directors sold more shares in Dawnay, Day Treveria, the listed property fund.

It has also emerged that the group is in discussions to sell a 51 per cent stake in its investment banking arm to a Portuguese bank after receiving 13 expressions of interest in the business. Dawnay, Day Investment Banking was put up for sale last week as its parent company sells assets to pay its debts.

Guy Naggar and Peter Klimt, the entrepreneurs behind Dawnay, Day, sold almost all their remaining shares in Treveria, the listed German property company that was spun out from Dawnay, Day in 2005, at €0.30 per share. This is half its share price from a month ago. The men have disposed of about 4.7 million shares held through other vehicles and have been left with a 0.8 per cent stake in the fund. They have lost almost £4 million through the forced sale.

Mr Klimt also offloaded interests representing shares worth more than 2 per cent of Dawnay, Day Carpathian, a specialist in retail property in Central and Eastern Europe, through the holding company Jetpath as Dawnay, Day came under pressure to raise cash.

Dawnay, Day yesterday appointed BDO Stoy Hayward as receivers at Starlight Investments and Insureprofit, two of its privately held property companies, as they went into administration. Starlight and Insureprofit hold investments of close to £500 million and debt of more than £350 million. BDO’s appointment follows a move by Norwich Union to recover its loans.

The company is working with Ernst & Young to “assess a range of options” for other offshoots. It has already sold its stockbroking business Dawnay, Day Capital Management to management. Dawnay, Day is understood to have interests in more than 250 companies, through hundreds of subsidiaries and holding companies, and owns and manages more than $10 billion (£5 billion) worth of assets.

Concerns are mounting that the group, which is heavily exposed to the property market, could become the next casualty of the credit crunch. It carried out a £750 million refinancing at the beginning of the year, taking out a mortgage with Norwich Union.

One property source said: “The market for property assets has been affected by the global credit crunch and Dawnay has been hit hard.”

Since the conglomerate began to unravel, several companies named after the group have distanced themselves from its problems. In addition, Dawnay Shore Hotels, which owns flagship investments such as The Carlton hotel in Edinburgh, this week said that the Dawnay, Day group held only an 8 per cent interest in the venture.

The Wolseley restaurant and Austin Reed, the clothing retailer, are understood to be unaffected by Dawnay, Day’s problems, as Mr Naggar and Mr Klimt own personal stakes, rather than owning them through Dawnay, Day.

The group is believed to have called in E&Y last weekend after being forced to sell a stake in F&C Asset Management at a £70 million loss, after a margin call from one of its banks.

FIBI Bank, part of First International Bank of Israel, said yesterday that it had sold its stake of 9 million Treveria shares – about 1.49 per cent of the company – on Monday.

In decline

— Dawnay, Day was established in the City in 1928 as an issuing house and was owned by Jacob Rothschild

— Since 2004 Dawnay, Day has four property funds, Puma (UK commercial property), Dawnay Shore Hotels (UK hotels), Dawnay, Day Carpathian (Eastern Europe) and Dawnay, Day Treveria (German)

— In the past two weeks it has sold a 20 per cent stake in F&C Asset Management and its half of broker Dawnay, Day Capital Markets

Times Recommends

• C&G axed - 1,660 jobs to be lost
• UK house prices rise 1.1% as buyers return
• Mixed reaction to US banks repaying bailouts