Afternoon:
14°c
Stan Kroenke's £1.7million acquisition of 200 Arsenal shares takes the American's stake in the club to 29.88per cent.
That is just short - only 72 shares short to be exact - of the key 30 per cent trigger stake which under City rules means he will have to launch a bid for the rest of Arsenal's shares.
So is "Silent Stan" about to buy the club?
The City's Takeover Panel rules mean Kroenke would have to launch a bid at the highest price he has paid for shares in the previous 12 months. That is the £10,500-a-share Kroenke paid the Carr family for a 7.8 per cent stake in May, a £50m transaction which took the American's stake from 20.5 to 28.3 per cent.
If Kroenke launched a bid now that would cost him around £450m if everyone sold up, valuing the club at £650m.
Notwithstanding doubts that Kroenke has that kind of money, to move so quickly would be a costly mistake: after next May, the 12-month rule means he could launch a bid at no more than £8,500 a share, saving himself nearly £90m. But has Kroenke any intention of launching a bid?
Those in the know argue the 62-year-old has, in fact, built up a very effective blocking stake preventing the Uzbeki oligarch and 25.4 per cent shareholder Alisher Usmanov launching a bid.
However, there could yet be a twist in the tale.
There is a query that as Kroenke has bought half of today's shares from Peter Hill-Wood (an avowed opponent of an Usmanov takeover), Kroenke and the Gunners' chairman are acting in concert. If the Takeover Panel ruled that to be the case, Hill-Wood's remaining 400 shares would be deemed to have taken Kroenke over the 30 per cent level, triggering a mandatory bid.
Unsatisfactory? That is about the politest word they can find to describe the Arsenal impasse in the City today.
