(Corrects SoftBank’s ticker symbol in paragraph 1)

By Echo Wang

(Reuters) -SoftBank is selling about 45 million of its shares in Uber Technologies Inc, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.

Uber shares were down 4.6% at $44 in extended trading.

Any buyer will have a 30-day lockup period, the source said.

The person added that the Japanese investment giant’s motive was unrelated to the performance of Didi Global and Alibaba and SoftBank just thought it was a good time to cash out partially on its Uber stake and take some profit.

CNBC had first reported the sale, saying it was to cover for losses seen in its investment in Didi and Alibaba.

SoftBank’s stake in Uber is now down to less than 100 million shares, CNBC added, citing one source.

(Reporting by Rithika Krishna in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)