Skip to main content

£300m bid for Newcastle United

Newcastle United have received a formal bid of approaching £300m for the club from PCP Capital Partners, the private investment firm fronted by the financier Amanda Staveley. The figure is said to be in the £260m-£300m range, but with an add on for good performance. No other credible bidder has emerged since the club was put up for sale.

Her investors include significant funds based in the Middle East with access to around £28bn, particularly in the United Arab Emirates. The Dubai-based businesswoman has a strong track record in football club ownership, having brokered the sale of Manchester City to Sheikh Mansour's group in 2008.

The figure offered, reportedly on a 'take it or leave it' basis falls significantly short of the £380m owner Mike Ashley is holding out for, itself a reduced figure from the £400m he originally hoped for. Ashley bought the club for £134.4m in 2007 and has more than doubled that investment in the ensuing decade.

Another concern for the bidders is an investigation by HM Revenue & Customs, with the club’s managing director among executives arrested and questioned this year in a probe into the tax affairs of leading European clubs. The club and the executives involved deny any wrongdoing.

Their latest accounts - up to 30 June 2016 and before the club's relegation to the Championship - showed a profit of £900,000 and turnover of £126m in 2015-16.

The timing of the bid, if it goes ahead, would allow player purchases to be made in the January transfer window, avoiding another relegation struggle. Without an enhancement of the squad, the future of manager Rafael Benitiez is in doubt.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Threat of financial calamity removed from Baggies

West Bromwich Albion had effectively been in decline ever since the club was sold to a Chinese consortium in August 2016, paying a figure north of £200m to buy former owner Jeremy Peace’s stake. Controlling shareholder Guochuan Lai’s ownership was fairly disastrous for the club, but his unloved tenure finally came to an end after Bilkul Football WBA, a company ultimately owned by Florida-based entrepreneur Shilen Patel and his father Dr Kiran Patel, acquired an 87.8% shareholding in West Bromwich Albion Group Limited, the parent company of West Bromwich Albion Football Club. This change in ownership was urgently required, due to the numerous financial problems facing West Brom, including growing high-interest debt and serious cash flow concerns, following years of no investment from the former owner. Indeed, West Brom’s auditors had already rung the alarm bell in the 2021/22 accounts when they cast doubt on the club’s ability to continue as a going concern without making player s...
1 comment
Read more

Gold standard ground boosts Tottenham's income

The gold standard in European football grounds is the Tottenham Hotspur stadium in north London, a £1bn construction project completed in 2019. Its impact on the club’s finances has become increasingly clear as the effects of the pandemic have faded. Previously, the average fan would spend less than £2 inside the ground on a typical match day, but now that figure is about £16, thanks to new facilities including the longest bar in Europe and an on-site microbrewery. Capacity has gone up from 36,000 at the club’s previous home of White Hart Lane to 62,000.  The new stadium — built on land adjacent to White Hart Lane — has opened the door to a broad range of other events that have helped to push commercial income up from €117mn in 2018 to €215mn in 2022. Last year, Tottenham hosted US singer Beyoncé for five nights on her global Renaissance tour, two NFL matches, as well as rugby games and heavyweight boxing bouts.  Money brought in from football has gone up too. Match day ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Spurs to sell minority stake

Tottenham Hotspur is in talks to sell a minority stake in a deal that could value it at up to £3.75 billion and pave the way for Joe Lewis and his family to sever ties with the Premier League football club. Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy is seeking an investment that values the club at between £3.5 billion and £3.75 billion, including debt. While the terms of any deal have not been finalised, City sources expect Spurs to sell about 10 per cent. The club is being advised by bankers from Rothschild on the sale. Tottenham wants to raise fresh capital for new player signings and to help fund the development of an academy for its women’s team, as well as a 30-storey hotel next to its north London stadium. The financier Amanda Staveley, who brokered the deal for Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund to take over Newcastle United, is understood to be among the parties to have expressed an interest in Tottenham. Staveley’s fund, PCP Capital Partners, has raised about £500 million to ...
Post a Comment
Read more