Qatari royalty has increased its shareholding in J Sainsbury to more than 25 per cent.
The The royal family of the Gulf kingdom’s investment vehicle, Delta Two, has bought 123 million Sainsbury's shares at 595 pence per share, an input of £732m that takes its overall stake to 435m shares.
Sainsbury's recently shook off a private equity consortium led by CVC Partners, but speculation has persisted and this morning’s announcement adds more grist to the rumour mill.
Sainsbury's shares jumped 4.3 per cent in early trading.
Delta Two annouced it had bought 17.6 per cent of the group in April, signaling for the first time the interest of the Qatari royal family. This purchase takes its stake to 25.007 per cent, well ahead of that held collectively by the Sainsbury family.
The Delta group of investment vehicles is linked to property entrepreneurs Robert and Vincent Tchenguiz and the former owns five per cent of Sainsbury's and has called for it to be split up so as to realise the value of its property assets.
Analysts are speculating that a split between the group’s retail and property is becoming more likely. But Sainsbury's itself has been at pains to distance itself from any spin-off off of its property, arguing that its value was closely tied to retail operations.
