Stan Kroenke, Arsenal’s majority shareholder, has increased his stake in the club to 28.58 per cent, just short of the amount he would require to make a formal bid.
The American businessman, 61, has progressively upped his stake in Arsenal. In March he increased his holding to 20.5 per cent after acquiring 4,839 shares from fellow director Danny Fiszman.
And in May, Kroenke bought the shares of RCL Carr, Clive Carr and Lady Sarah Phipps-Bagge, for between of £8,500-£10,500 a share, increasing his stake further in the club to 28.3 per cent, adding 0.28 per cent.
The news comes in the week that the board rejected a proposal, by another leading shareholder, Alisher Usmanov, for a proposed rights issue to generate new cash.
The board that manager Arsene Wenger will have to secure “talented young players” in an attempt at avoiding falling into a footballing “graveyard”.
Usmanov, whose Red & White Holdings group have a stake of around 25 per cent in the club's parent company, wanted to reduce both the long-term debt of around £400 million while handing Wenger extra funds for transfers.
Kroenke has insisted in the past that he had no intention of taking over at the club, though he is just short of the 30 per cent which would force a formal offer.
But Ivan Gazidis, the Arsenal chief executive, has stated that the club’s current capital structure is “very efficient”.
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