Qatar has become the biggest shareholder in J Sainsbury, after it announced today that it has bought a 17 per cent stake in market raids earlier this week.

Delta (Two), the investment fund representing the Middle Eastern state, has netted 302 million shares in Britain's third-biggest supermarket. The shares were bought through contracts for difference, a mechanism by which the fund will not control the votes attached to the stake until it takes physical delivery of the shares.

The shares represent a 17.41 per cent holding, which together with the 300,000 shares held by Sheikh Hamad bin Jasim Jaber al-Thani, Qatar's Foreign Minister and First Deputy Prime Minister, takes the Qatar influence to 17.424 per cent.

Sainsbury's shares eased 0.5p to 567.5p, which values the stake at £1.7 billion.

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

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. However, sources close to Mr Tchenguiz said: “He’s delighted there is another property mind on the shareholder list.”

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