United shareholder gives first positive signs to Glazer

The American multi-millionaire Malcolm Glazer was given his first encouragement yet from a significant Manchester United shareholder when the Scottish mining entrepreneur, Harry Dobson, said yesterday that the 76-year-old tycoon should make a formal bid for the club.

Dobson, who owns 6.5 per cent of United, said that he would have to see an official proposal before considering an offer of 300 pence per share, which was the price suggested by Glazer in his latest proposal that the club's plc board refused to endorse on Friday.

It is the first piece of good news in some time for the American, who today starts his "due diligence" process - examining the Old Trafford accounts - despite the club's board telling him last week that his latest proposal would be "damaging" for United if it was allowed to go through.

"Everybody wants to know where they stand," Dobson said. "This will go its own logical way. Glazer may decide to go away, he may go hostile. I'm waiting to see whatever there is to see.

"I would have to see an official proposal before I would be able to consider a bid of 300p a share. I bought at 127p and I am an investor. You can't talk about making profits on investments until you sell them. But that's not to say I am going to sell."

The United board said in a statement on Friday that Glazer's new plan, understood to rely on borrowing £300m from the US bank J P Morgan and raising another £250m from new shares, would "put pressure on the business of Manchester United".

The board added that Glazer's "business plan assumptions are aggressive and that the direct and indirect financial strain on the business could be damaging". The club have now effectively rejected two proposals by Glazer to take over United on the grounds that he would place the club in serious debt in order to raise the finances to buy up the remaining stock. However, the board's statement did concede that 300p a share represented good value for shareholders.

Despite his approaches to the board, Glazer has never made a direct offer to the remaining shareholders, and he is understood not to have been in official talks with Cubic Expression, the investment company of John Magnier and J P McManus, since October. Even if the board was to endorse his plan he would have to convince the pair to sell him their 28.89 per cent holding.

The Irish multi-millionaires released a statement on Friday that said their position as long-term investors was unchanged by Glazer's access to the accounts. It is unlikely the board would have rejected another proposal by the American without a degree of certainty that Cubic were also of a mind not to sell to Glazer. United's victory at Manchester City passed without any fan protests against the proposed takeover. The home supporters chanted "USA, USA", but there were no organised demonstrations.