Japan's largest investment bank, Nomura, confirmed yesterday that it was in talks about financing a fan-centred initiative to prevent the takeover of Manchester United by Malcolm Glazer.
The architect of the plan is Keith Harris, the former chairman of the Football League, now the chairman of the corporate brokers, Seymour Pierce. Harris has been working on a financing package with Nomura for several weeks, although details have not been made public.
Nomura said in a statement yesterday: "Nomura confirms its Asset Finance Group is in discussions with Seymour Pierce Ltd about providing finance to assist them and the supporters with a view to developing a strategy that will provide a long-term future for Manchester United that is in the best interests of the club."
Any large-scale, supporter-based share acquisition to thwart Glazer raises questions, not least how a fans' consortium would repay a loan of up to £200m from Nomura. But the mere confirmation by the bank that talks are ongoing signals the start of the endgame in the current battle for ownership of United.
The obvious next move for Harris and fans' groups is to identify 25 per cent of shareholders who are anti-Glazer and pool their holdings in a formal, single block. This would be time-consuming and logistically tough. With Glazer owning 28.11 per cent, Cubic and their perceived allies around 35 per cent combined, and small institutions around 20 per cent, that leaves only around 17 per cent of confirmed fans or "floaters". Which is where Nomura's money comes in.
That could be used to buy stock either from the institutions or the "floaters" or possibly even from Cubic. But there would remain a stumbling block over repaying the money to Nomura. No details have been made public, although it is possible that Nomura might need to lend much less, and tens of thousands of fans, collectively, would fund the venture.
In other news this weekend, Manchester United will be playing a football match.