Glazer boosts his Man U stake

MALCOLM Glazer, the American entrepreneur who wants to take over Manchester United, today upped his stake in the football club to 28.1%, buying a further 1.3m shares at 285p each.

It also emerged that Legal & General was the big seller of shares to Glazer yesterday. The insurance giant revealed that it sold him 1.5m shares, also at 285p. This reduced its stake to 7.65 million shares or 2.94%.

It appeared to be the first time L&G had sold Man U, having been a steady buyer earlier this year.

Glazer, who is expected to hand control of the club to his son Joel if he succeeds in his ambition, bought six million shares yesterday, raising his stake to 27.5%.

It is believed that he ordered investment bank Credit Suisse First Boston to purchase a total of 25m shares, which would take his total stake to 29%.

That is the same-sized holding as that of Cubic Expression, the investment vehicle of Irish racing millionaires JP McManus and John Magnier.

Talks between their representative and JP Morgan, acting for Glazer, were reported to have broken down last week because the American would not make them an unconditional offer for their stake. Manchester United shares were down 1p at 284p today.

Analysts said they do not expect any real action until Glazer's stake is just below 30%, at which point he would automatically trigger a bid.

Market talk is that he could make an initial offer of between 310p and 315p a share, which would value the club at £825m.