18.3 percent stake to Anglo American Corp. of South Africa for 257.4 million ($411 million) and will step down from his post.

Bock will become deputy chairman and a non-executive director after the company completes the sale of its Princess and Metropole hotel chains within the next two weeks, a Lonrho spokesman said.

He will be replaced as chief executive by Nicholas Morrell, the deputy managing director.

The spokesman said Bock exercised his option to sell the stake to Anglo, obtained in April, because he plans to invest in the collection of trading companies that Lonrho is spinning off as part of a three-way split.

"If he's going to be an investor he shouldn't be determining the flotation price,'' said Anthony Cardew of Cardew & Co., a firm that represents the company in London.

Lonrho's shares rose 4.5 pence to 163.5p. They've slumped 16 percent since Bock announced that his Laerstate BV holding company had taken the option to sell all 143 million of its Lonrho shares to Anglo at 180 pence. Some analysts, and Rowland, complained that the decision left Bock with an exit from Lonrho's flagging shares without doing much to boost its prospects.

The German financier invested in Lonrho and became joint chief executive in 1993, charged with boosting stock that had eroded under long-time leader Roland (Tiny) Rowland.

Bock took sole control the following year after a boardroom struggle spurred by Rowland's opposition to Bock's plans to pare Lonrho's collection of about 800 companies. Charles Kernot, an analyst with Paribas Capital Markets, said Bock's move will facilitate Lonrho's split-up and should restore its share price.

"Were he an executive director, people would worry about conflict of interest; the fact that he's a non-executive director makes (the spin-off) simpler and safer,'' Kernot said. "I think the shares can and will recover.'' He said he thinks the stock is worth about 220 pence because of the "unrealised value'' of Lonrho's collection of businesses.

Its mining interests include a stake of more than 30 percent in Ghana's Ashanti Goldfields Co. Ltd., which operates one of the world's richest gold mines, and majority stakes in South Africa's Western Platinum Ltd. and Eastern Platinum Ltd., which jointly produce more than a tenth of the world's platinum.

Under Bock's plans for the three-way split, those companies will remain trading under the wing of Anglo as the non-mining interests are spun off.

Anglo, South Africa's largest company, said in a statement it doesn't plan to bid for the rest of Lonrho.

The purchase of Bock's shares will give companies it controls a stake of 25.9 percent in Lonrho. Its Southern Life unit trust holds another 2.2 percent of the company.

Kernot said Bock will probably buy Anglo's interest in the non-mining businesses since it's more interested in the mines, particularly's Lonrho's stake in Ashanti.

Lonrho earlier this year shelved plans for a public offer of shares in the hotels after finding that a trade sale would raise more money. Princess comprises ten luxury hotels in the US, Bermuda and Caribbean and Metropole consists of five UK hotels.

Fairmont Hotels Management Ltd., or its wealthy part owner Prince al-Waleed, are seen by analysts as the most likely bidders for the Princess chain. UK newspapers say the UK's Stakis Plc and Millennium & Copthorne Hotels Plc are interested in the Metropole chain.