The board of J Sainsbury is likely to come under increasing pressure to break up the company after a dawn raider grabbed 14 per cent of the supermarket group yesterday.

Shares in the superstore operator rose 7 per cent after an investor — believed to be Three Delta, the Qatari-backed property fund — spent £1.3 billion acquiring at least 250 million shares in Sainsbury’s at 575p a share.

The chain’s board is expected now to face growing calls to realise the value of its property assets, as Three Delta, an investment group run by Paul Taylor, the former chief executive of Robert Tchenguiz’s Rotch property group, is likely to back Mr Tchenguiz’s campaign for the sale of all or some of its stores.

Mr Tchenguiz wants Sainsbury’s to realise some of the estimated £10 billion value of its property portfolio and return funds to shareholders after the failure of a takeover attempt by a group led by CVC, the private equity firm, which had offered 582p a share for the supermarket chain.

It is understood that Mr Tchenguiz, who has built up a 5 per cent stake in Sainsbury’s, is not working in concert with Three Delta. However, sources close to Mr Tchenguiz said: “He’s delighted there is another property mind on the shareholder list.”

Three Delta is understood to have been advised by Credit Suisse’s capital markets team on the share acquisition, which would make it Sainsbury’s largest shareholder. The shares are thought to have been acquired from Alliance Bernstein, the American fund manager that held 254 million shares of Sainsbury’s.

Some sources said the firm had been able to acquire further stock during the day, lifting its stake to as much as 17 per cent.

Three Delta already owned a small stake, about 1 per cent, in Sainsbury’s and some analysts speculated that the larger stake could have been acquired as part of plans to mount a bid of its own for the UK’s third-largest supermarket chain.

The shares soared 38p to 568p as hopes of a takeover were reignited after the collapse of CVC’s bid attempt.

However, private equity experts said that such a move was unlikely. If they intended to make a bid, the Qataris would have to pay a premium to the price of the shares that they had bought already.

The involvement of Credit Suisse’s capital markets team rather than its M&A division also suggests that Three Delta’s move is strategic rather than a prelude to a bid.

Three Delta, which counts Peter Middleton, the former chairman of Barclays, and Nick Land, the former chairman of Ernst and Young, on its board, would also face the same issues that prevented CVC from finalising its £10.1 billion takeover this month — the Sainsbury’s family and the pension fund deficit.

Lord Sainsbury of Turville, who controls 7.75 per cent of Sainsbury’s, has said that he would not consider a bid for the company below 600p: 575p is a near10 per cent premium to the previous close of 530p.

The arrival of Three Delta on Sainsbury’s shareholder list would appear to split its investors into two opposing camps.

The hopes of Mr Tchenguiz and the Qatari-backed fund that the supermarket will divide into separate operating and property companies are strongly opposed by the Sainsbury family.

Sources said that the Sainsbury’s board and the founding family are against a break-up of the group into the operating company and its property assets, although it is possible that the supermarket chain would consider selling off some of its assets to realise value.

Business big shots
Qatari royal family

The extraordinary wealth of Qatar and the ruling al-Thani family is based on natural gas. The emirate boasts the third-largest gas reserves in the world after Russia and Iran, some 900 trillion cubic feet, mainly because of the North Field, an offshore gas accumulation that is the largest single gas resource in the world. It straddles the Gulf and is shared with Iran, where it is called South Pars.

Qatar is recycling its gas dollars, like many of its oil-rich neighbours, into commercial property. Three Delta, a $20 billion investment fund, was set up last year. Its largest investors are the Qatar Government and Sheikh Hamad bin Jasim Jaber al-Thani, the Foreign Minister and First Deputy Prime Minister of Qatar (pictured). Apart from its stake in Sainsbury, Three Delta owns the Apple Nursing Home portfolio of nursing homes, up for sale at £270 million.

Three Delta is run by Paul Taylor, 42, formerly the chief executive of Rotch Property Group, the multibillion-pound property business of the Mayfair-based brothers Vincent and Robert Tchenguiz.

Sheikh Hamad is the key financial backer of One Hyde Park, a Candy & Candy- designed luxury flats scheme. Qatari Diar, a company chaired by Sheikh Hamad, is part of a consortium that bought Chelsea Barracks this month for £900 million. (Carl Mortished, James Rossiter)

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