To the wider football audience this is a hugely engaging billion – pound chess game to gain control of a fallen European Champion football club now struggling to adapt to life in the second division.
To West Ham fans it is much, much more as the heart of their historic club, almost ripped out by the previous regime, is now subject to a tug of war played out in melodramatic fashion with the football having become secondary to the battle to secure the leadership, if not yet outright ownership, of West Ham United.
Following Amanda Staveley’s apparent ‘ambush’ of Daniel Kretinksy’s plan to acquire some, not all, of Amanda Gold’s shareholding in the club, the Czech Sphinx has responded with his own riposte to Staveley’s opening gambit.
According to thetimes.com:
“Daniel Kretinsky moves to block Amanda Staveley’s £150m West Ham deal:
Kretinsky, the 51-year-old owner of Royal Mail, has responded [ to Staveley’s bid] by reducing his holding from 27 per cent to below 25 per cent, which enables him to buy the Gold family’s full stake without surpassing 50 per cent. Kretinsky must not exceed that level because it may trigger a clause, under a shareholders’ agreement between them from 2021, which forces him to buy Sullivan’s 38.8 per cent stake at an inflated price.”
Which means Kretinsky has no intention of surrendering control of West Ham United. As the article confirms:
“Should Kretinsky’s move pay off, his combined holding should put him in control of the club — which was relegated to the Championship last season — denying Staveley the chance to buy any shares….
Kretinsky has agreed to sell more than 2 per cent to Jakub Havrlant, a Czech entrepreneur and investor. Kretinsky has gambled that he can buy all of the Gold family’s holding — Vanessa Gold, David’s daughter, is representing them — in the belief Sullivan will not be able to increase his stake because the Independent Football Regulator would step in because of the sexual abuse allegations against him.”
A couple of months of frenetic activity behind the scenes is likely before there’s a resolution to the question of ‘who owns West Ham United’ but it would seem that Kretinsky, seemingly blindsided by the original Staveley offer, has responded quickly to counter and tighten his own grip on the club at which he’s been a minority investor since November 2021.
Gold and Sullivan negotiated a complex agreement when Kretinsky became a shareholder – which now handcuffs the Czech’s plans without triggering major buyout clauses
The complex agreement made between the Czech and then shareholders David Sullivan and David Gold is responsible for Kretinsky’s circuitous route to dispose of, and acquire more shares as he does not wish to own enough shares himself to ‘trigger’ a mandatory buyout of Sullivan’s shares at an inflated price, as C and H covered earlier this morning.
The problem for West Ham the football club is to prevent this drama leeching out and affecting the team’s transfer window activity or performance on the pitch.
How can Kretinsky agree to sell shares to Jakub Havrlant, a Czech entrepreneur without being subject to same stipulations that mean Vanesa Gold has to offer her shares to existing holders in the order and % ownership they currently have?
As you say Martin, fascinating to the external viewer but just unwanted noise at the wrong time for us emotionally attached to the club. Seems to me that DK has every intention of assuming control of the club.