Venture capital firm BC Partners has completed its exit from Foxtons, selling off its final shares in the firm.

The sale of the 20m shares, representing a 7% holding, was completed by Jefferies overnight on Wednesday.

The timing may or may not have been the best: Foxtons’ shares tumbled on Wednesday after a “sell” rating by analysts at Peel Hunt. However, BC Partners would have been glad they did not sell yesterday, when Foxtons’ shares fell a further 4.19%.

The exit draws the final curtain over a turbulent eight years.

In 2007, Foxtons’ founder Jon Hunt sold the company to BC Partners at the height of the property boom for £360m.

The crash that swiftly followed meant the private equity firm had to watch as its investment chalked up debts of £260m. In 2008, BC Partners wrote the value of its stake in Foxtons down to zero.

It was said that BC Partners referred to its acquisition of the London agent as “the F word”.

BC Partners was ousted in 2010 in a creditors’ revolt, when lenders stepped in to restructure the debt, but regained control two years later by buying back the banks’ holdings.

However, the market turned around and BC Partners floated Foxtons on the stock market at a £649m valuation – suggesting that BC Partners’ original investment had virtually doubled.