In March, club owner Bernie Ecclestone suggested he might be interested in selling his 69% stake in QPR for £100million - and the club entered into talks with an unnamed group, with due diligence taking place. However, while those discussions failed to reach an agreement, QPR tonight released a statement revealing the club had now started "preliminary discussions with a different party". "On March 4 the company (QPR Holdings Limited) announced that it was in preliminary discussions with a potential purchaser," the statement on www.qpr.co.uk read. "At the time the takeover panel confirmed that should those discussions result in an offer being made for the company, the offer would be subject to the City code on takeovers and mergers (the code), even if such an offer was made after April 2, being the date on which the company ceased to be to the code, due to it being delisted 10 years previously. "The company confirm that these discussions came to an end in March. "Since the end of these discussions, the company has entered into preliminary discussions with a different party and can confirm that these discussions and any subsequent transaction would not be subject to the code. "Accordingly the company confirms that is it no longer in an offer period for the purposes of the code. "We will be making no further comment at stage." A third of QPR's stock is owned by the family of metals billionaire Lakshmi Mittal. In May, vice-chairman Amit Bhatia, Mittal's son-in-law, resigned from the board after a disagreement over ticket-price increases and changes to club management. Force India Formula One team owner Vijay Mallya and chairman of United Breweries Group, which produces the Kingfisher beer brand, has previously been linked with the Loftus Road club.
