SPECULATION that Manchester United could soon be at the centre of a takeover battle heightened yet further yesterday after American football tycoon Malcolm Glazer and Big Brother creator John de Molboth increased their stakes.
Glazer, the man who turned the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from American football strugglers to reigning Super Bowl champions, now owns 8.94 per cent of the Manchester club. After trebling his stake in the club over the past three weeks, he is now the club’s second-biggest shareholder – beating the 6.5 per cent holding of Scottish mining entrepreneuer Harry Dobson.
De Mol, a Dutch TV guru, meanwhile revealed that he has increased his stake in United from 3.5 per cent to 4.1 per cent – but immediately insisted that he had no plans to stage a takeover.
The move came just one day after Irish racehorse owners JP McManus and John Magnier increased their stake in United’s plc to 23.15 per cent after paying GBP 62 million for BSkyB’s 10 per cent holding.
If any investors – or group of investors working in consort – was to hold a stake of more than 29.9 per cent, they would be forced by law to table a formal takeover offer.
Frank Botman, a director of de Mol’s Talpa investment vehicle, said the group had not spoken with McManus or Magnier, nor with Glazer. He added: “Our interest is financial and is not strategic. We don’t look at Manchester United as a football club. We look at it as a brand.”
Among yesterday’s sellers was the hedge fund Landsdowne Partners, which has reduced its holding to 3.7 per cent from 5.2 per cent – cashing in on the current bumper share price.
Despite the heightened bid speculation, Man Utd’s shares closed more than 5 per cent lower yesterday at 236.25p. Aside from profit- taking, the stock went ex-dividend – meaning new shareholders are not entitled to the group’s final and special dividends announced in September.
