Skip to main content

Investors lining up to back Leeds plans

Investors are lining up to back the ambitious plans of Leeds United according to owner Andrea Radrizzani in an interview with the Financial Times Weekend edition.  He has rejected takeover offers in recent weeks, but is willing to sell a minority stake in the club on the basis of a £270m - £300m valuation.

49ers Enterprise, the investment arm of the San Francisco 49ers NFL team, has said it is willing to increase the 10 per cent stake it acquired in Leeds in 2018.

Last year Qatar Sports Investments, the state-backed group that owns Paris Saint-Germain, held investment talks with Mr Radrizzani.   It is thought to be still interested in acquiring Leeds outright.

Mr Radrizzani said that he is interested in creating a network of clubs like City Football Group or drinks manufacturer Red Bull that controls teams in Australia, Brazil, Germany and the US.  They would develop footballers that could eventually play for Leeds. He was evaluating teams in the top divisions of Italy, Spain and Portugal, although is no longer interested in Genoa.

Leeds has one of the biggest matchday attendances in England with its 38,000 seater stadium.  Covid-19 has meant a loss of £30m - £40m in revenue.   However, shirt sponsorship deals, including one with betting firm SBOTOP, have raised £9m-£10m this season.   The club hopes to raise a further £30m - £50m through a factoring deal - borrowing money from its future income from broadcasting rights.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It's no deal say Spurs insiders over Taiwanese takeover

Senior figures at Tottenham Hotspur insisted on Friday that they had not been informed of any deal to sell Daniel Levy’s stake in the club. A business group, Eight Sports Capital — which is said to include a billionaire Taiwanese financier — claimed that it had an agreement in place to buy a 24.99 per cent stake in ENIC, the club’s majority owners, from Levy, who owns 29.88 per cent. The Times has been told Ng Wing Fai and Brooklyn Earick form part of the group, having both been linked previously to potential takeovers of the Premier League club. The Taiwanese businessman, Richard Tsai, is also said to be part of the consortium. He is reportedly worth £7 billion.  Last year Earick, the former DJ and tech entrepreneur, was part of an attempted £4.5 billion takeover, which was “unequivocally rejected” by Spurs.  An ENIC spokesperson said: “We can confirm that neither ENIC nor THFC are aware of any sale by Daniel Levy’s Family Trust of its minority stake in ENIC, THFC’...
Post a Comment
Read more

Reports about Charlton sale exaggerated

Reports have appeared in The Guardian and elsewhere that Charlton has been put up for sale. Richard Cawley is an authoritative local journalist who runs a South London Sport substack site.  He reached out to the club yesterday evening to ask for comment on The Guardian’s article. Early indications from the club have been that nothing has changed since the story about them seeking investment, except that it is now a different company doing it. Charlton have since managed to consolidate their place in the Championship, avoiding an instant return to League One, with their women’s side promoted to the WSL, returning to the top flight for the first time since 2007, although staying there is likely to be costly. It would be counter-intuitive for owners Global Football Partners not to progress the club when looking for investment, that the focus remains on driving it forward, that their spend this summer is in line with long-term planning and will see an increase in wages spent on players...
Post a Comment
Read more

Hull City's 'strange' loan

When football finance guru Kieran Maguire seems flashing lights in a club's loan deal, I become concerned.  He is the leading football finance expert in the UK. Hull City have borrowed £55m against their stadium and training ground yet they should get £30m from the Premier League before long.  What is going on? https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cpwel48y51do
Post a Comment
Read more