The US share values of BlackBerry Ltd's increased by 3% on Monday after a report circulated of a Canadian investor was near a rescue plan for the smartphone manufacturer. Just last month, the Canadian smartphone maker had offered itself for sale.

The shares of the company increased to USD11.17 in premarket trading as it closed at USD10.84 on regular Nasdaq trading. It was Britain's Sunday Times newspaper who broke the story of efforts being undertaken by Canadian investor Prem Watsa to obtain backing from known pension funds to complete his buyout offer.

Blackberry spokespersons were not available to provide a comment on the news report.

Fairfax Financial Holdings, the company headed by Prem Watsa, is currently the largest shareholder in Blackberry, with a 10% stake in the company. This shareholding is key for any decision is to be made on the sale of the firm. Watsa did step down from the board of directors of Blackberry to prevent a possible conflict of interest as the smartphone maker announced its exploration of strategic alternatives.