AMANDA STAVELEY might have set Tyneside tongues wagging when she registered a new company at the start of the week – but the developments are not connected to her ongoing attempts to take over at Newcastle United.

Staveley registered a new company – Cantervale Ltd – at Companies House on Tuesday, and was named as the business’ only director on the official registration forms.

Cantervale Ltd is a ‘financial intermediation’ business, which means it can be used as a holding company to acquire other financial assets and businesses, and its registration sparked speculation that it could be used as a vehicle to complete Staveley’s planned takeover of Newcastle.

The North Yorkshire businesswoman’s PCP Capital Partners Group have been involved in discussions with Newcastle owner Mike Ashley for more than a month now, and are understood to have tabled a £250m offer for the Magpies.

However, sources close to Staveley claim Cantervale Ltd has nothing to do with the situation at Newcastle United, and instead relates to other branches of the financier’s business portfolio.

There is still no agreement over price between Staveley and Ashley, and the Premier League have not begun their ‘fit-and-proper person test’, which would be a formal requirement of any successful takeover agreement.