Whatever football fans may make of BSkyB's reported £575 million bid to buy Manchester United, shareholders are set to make a mint out of the deal.
The offer by Rupert Murdoch's satellite TV company values the club at £162 million more than its current price on the stock market.
Top of the list of cash winners will be Martin Edwards, United's chief executive and the club's largest single shareholder whose 14 per cent stake is worth £80.5 million under the rumoured BSkyB bid.
This is £23.5 million more than he would have made if he had sold his shares on the open market on Friday.
Another winner will be non-executive director Maurice Watkins who, according to the club's last company report, owned around 2 per cent of the club, a stake valued by BSkyB at just over £10 million.
The vast majority of shares, around 60 per cent of the company are owned by 124 institutional investors, British and overseas finance companies. Six shareholding directors including Mr Edwards and Mr Watkins own 17 per cent between them.
The remaining 23 per cent is owned by over 21,000 private individuals many of them fans of the club. While the shareholding of each of these investors and fans will vary widely, on average each could sell their stake to BSkyB for £6,200 pounds, an instant profit of around £1,800 over Friday's price on the stock market.
