From The Guardian:
‘Speculation was growing last night that Manchester United could fall prey to a possible bid as the company's advisers struggled to discover who is behind recent share dealing in the Premiership club.
They are trawling through the company's share register to discover the identity of a new player in what has been a long running saga over its ownership. It comes after £2m worth of Man U shares were purchased by an unknown investor through a Swiss bank.
The advisers will be looking for any connection between this new name and an existing collection of Irish investors, led by billionaire Dermot Desmond. Mr Desmond has a 20% stake in Scottish club Celtic and is thought to have built up a small stake in Man U. His friends and fellow Irishmen JP McManus and John Magnier hold 8.6% of the club through their Cubic Expressions business. A further 6.5% is held by Mountbarrow Investments, the vehicle of Scottish millionaire Harry Dobson who is a friend of Mr McManus and Mr Magnier. None of the three were willing, however, to discuss whether a bid is being considered.
A club spokesman said it was not yet on bid alert. "We monitor it [the shareholder register] as we always would, but there's always speculation about people picking up small stakes."
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