BILLIONAIRE Mike Ashley last night became the largest stakeholder in Newcastle United, buying 41.6 per cent of the club's shares with his specially-created company St James' Holdings Limited.

The businessman is now the owner of 55,342,223 shares in the plc, having paid more than £55m - a price of 100p per share - to secure the major stake.

St James' Holdings now controls the shares previously owned by Wynyard (Guernsey) Limited, Cameron Hall Developments Limited and Cameron Hall Developments Limited Executive Pension Scheme - all of which are divisions of an organisation created by Sir John Hall and his family.

Mr Ashley becomes one of only three named major stakeholders in Newcastle United, following the departure of Sir John and his son, Douglas, from the club's financial set-up, after initially buying into the Magpies for a reported £6m in 1989.

Under takeover rules - which state that any investor acquiring more than 30 per cent of a company must also bid for the remaining shares - Mr Ashley will now have to make a formal offer for the whole club.

The businessman said yesterday the offer would value the remaining 58.4 per cent of shares at 100p each.

Alongside a plethora of private investors and brokers - known as institutional holders - and fans holding small numbers of shares, club chairman Freddy Shepherd and businessman Len Hatton are the two other significant stakeholders in the plc.

Mr Shepherd holds a 28.01 per cent stake in Newcastle United, and Mr Hatton owns 3.88 per cent of the club's shares. The institutional holders and fans control the remaining 26.53 per cent.

Mr Shepherd became involved with the club in the early 1990s, and owned 10.1 per cent of the club at the time of its conversion to a plc in April 1997.

The Hall family controlled 79.2 per cent, which has slowly diminished over the past decade, with the final blow being struck yesterday.

Newcastle United's share price soared yesterday on the back of the move from St James' Holdings, rising by more than 14 per cent throughout the day from an opening price of 84p to close at 96p - its highest point for more than a year.