HARRY Dobson, the Scottish mining and property tycoon, insisted last night that he is not yet ready to offload his 6.5% stake in Manchester United after the club’s shares soared amid renewed takeoverspeculation.<\/p>\n
The low-profile entrepreneur, reputed to be worth more than (pounds) 400m, also rebutted speculation that he might join horseracing friends JP McManus and John Magnier in a takeover bid, after it emerged that the Irish duo had bought broadcaster BSkyB’s 9.9% stake.<\/p>\n
McManus and Magnier paid (pounds) 62m for BSkyB’s shares through their investment vehicle Cubic Expression, lifting their stake in United to 23.15%.<\/p>\n
Former stockbroker Dobson, son of a Lauder farmer, has made a (pounds) 20.5m paper profit on his United shares in just 16 months. He bought 17 million shares from Martin Edwards, the former United owner and chairman, for more than (pounds) 20m in May 2002 to become the club’s then-largest individual shareholder.<\/p>\n
United’s shares closed up nearly 6% last night, at 247.75p, valuing Dobson’s stake at (pounds) 42m.<\/p>\n
Dobson told The Herald: “You can never say you have made a profit until you have cashed in your investment. I am not a seller right now. Would you be? But I am pleased to see the share price rise. The sensible thing to do is to sit and watch and that is what I am going to do.”<\/p>\n
Dobson has always insisted he bought the shares purely as an investment and he maintained that line yesterday. He said: “Nobody has spoken to me, and I have no interest in taking over Manchester United.”<\/p>\n
BSkyB offloaded its 26 million shares in Manchester United for 239p each, ending the broadcaster’s involvement with the club that regulators blocked it from buying for 240p a share in 1999.<\/p>\n
Takeover rumours have intensified since Russian oil tycoon Roman Abramovich bought London rival Chelsea and poured (pounds) 100m into buying players.<\/p>\n
Investors, including US sports magnate Malcolm Glazer, owner of Super Bowl champions, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and the billionaire behind reality television show Big Brother, John de Mol, have been gradually building their stakes in United, although the club has insisted there have been no bid talks. Glazer has 5.9%, hedge fund Lansdowne Partners has 5.2%, and de Mol has 3.5%. Dermot Desmond, Celtic’s biggest individual shareholder, has 1.5%.<\/p>\n
John Moore, a football specialist with Scottish investment managers Bell Lawrie White, described United’s shares as “pretty expensive” at nearly 248p. “Anything over 220p can’t be justified on a straight valuation basis. If I were Harry Dobson’s investment manager I would say: ‘Let’s take half out and get our money back and see what happens (to the rest)’.”<\/p>\n
Stan Lock, broker at private client stockbroker Brewin Dolphin, said: “The Russians are still in the background, the American is still picking them up, and now it looks like the Irish picking them up. It could be a free-for-all.”<\/p>\n
DOBSON’S CHOICE born in Lauder in 1947, Harry Dobson left Scotland in his twenties to work in a mining concern in the Solomon Islands. After spells in New Guinea and Australia, he moved to Canada to make his fortune. In 1986, he bought a small company, American Pacific Mining, for (pounds) 9m with a partner and sold it for (pounds) 77m three years later. The racing enthusiast has 40 horses in training in Ireland, 187 acres of prime Dublin land, and homes in Scotland, Vancouver, and Jersey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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