PARIS, France — French investment group Eurazeo has sold its entire stake in Italian luxury clothes company Moncler for around €445 million ($505 million).

Eurazeo said on Wednesday it sold just over 12 million Moncler shares — representing around 4.8 percent of Moncler's share capital — at €36.50 per share, compared with Moncler's closing stock price of €37.05 on March 19.

Moncler shares had risen steadily in recent weeks and closed at €37.05 on Tuesday, up more than 40 percent from a 10-month low of €26.07 set in mid December. Eurazeo's stake was sold via an accelerated bookbuild to a selection of unnamed institutional investors.

Eurazeo first bought a stake in Moncler, which was founded in the French Alps in 1952, in 2011.

Eurazeo said its eight-year investment in Moncler had generated proceeds of €1.4 billion and an internal rate of return (IRR) of 43 percent, but it gave no reason for the decision to sell.

"Eurazeo's long-term outlook, its very clear strategic vision and its international reach have been of huge value to us," said Moncler company head Remo Ruffini in a statement.

Last month, Moncler forecast more growth in 2019 after a new product strategy based on faster-paced collections helped produce a 19 percent increase in annual sales and boosted profitability.

Investment banks Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and Lazard all worked on Eurazeo's stake sale.

By Sudip Kar-Gupta; editors: Louise Heavens and David Holmes.