Man U coup for ex-Merrill duo

SHREWD followers of the soap opera of Manchester United's escalating share price will already know where to look for the next stock market raid by rich men with fat wallets.

Lansdowne Partners, a secretive West End-based hedge fund led by two ex-Merrill Lynch investment managers, has played a central role in the stake-building battle at the club.

This week they confirmed they are £31.5m wealthier after the sale of their 4% stake in Man U to American billionaire Malcolm Glazer.

Lansdowne has played the Old Trafford casino cannily, buying shares when the price dipped and selling-on parcels of stock when tycoons such as Glazer, the Irishmen John Magnier and JP McManus, and Dutch television entrepreneur John de Mol came knocking.

It is a game Lansdowne's star fund managers Stuart Roden and Peter Davies know well.

Last year they were in Arcadia when billionaire retailer Philip Green swooped, and they were holding nearly 7% of Harvey Nichols when Dickson Poon took the group private. When Guy Hands snapped up Waste Recycling earlier this year, Lansdowne was holding 5% of the stock.

Roden and Davies, who quit Merrill Lynch to join Lansdowne in 2001 just days after they got a final multi-million pound pay-off from their time at Mercury Asset Management, are refusing to make any comment on their Man U manoeuvrings.

One of their advisers explained: 'They don't seek the limelight. But they are pretty good at what they do.'

As for the the stocks Lansdowne is currently chasing, the London Evening Standard has reveaedl it has built up significant positions at Burtonwood Brewery, financial services group Millfield and recent Alternative Investment Market flotation IP2IPO.

It is perhaps no coincidence that these companies' shares have all recently been strong risers.