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.
But what game is Amanda playing ? To get control she needs either DK’s shares – and he doesn’t seem in the mood to give them up. Or Sullivan’s. And he says he isn’t selling until we get back into the Premiership.
Kretínsky is obviously a VERY intelligent guy and as such I believe there is no way Staveley and co. own our football club unless Kretinsky wants to sell his shares at a much higher price than he would be able to now. Could that possibly be his plan rather than be our owner for years to come?
Honestly, I wonder if billionaires ever lose sleep wondering why a majority of plebs see them as annoyingly pointless.
According to my Copilot mate £150 million is a little over 1% of Kretinsky’s £13 billion worth.
While I accept he doesn’t keep all that cash in a very large warehouse, and it’s not exactly liquid assets were talking about.
He’s kind of brought this on himself.
Could he not have just sold that 2% shareholding to start off with to push the deal through?
IIRC that the Gold family (or maybe just David) wanted the family to retain a 10% stake long term, but the two deaths in quick succession and financial difficulties for Anne Summers must have changed things.
Kretinsky didn’t want all the Gold shares, as that would take him to over 50% and a forced, expensive buyout of Sullivan. But gus plan didn’t need that. The “deal” reported with J. Gold was to get 15% from her, so Kretinsky became major shareholder (more than Sullivan, but <50%) and they would agree to vote together on important club matters.
I see this whole thing, as reported and without true knowledge of who said what, as J Gold reneging on a verbal agreement. Kretinsky the silent time getting Bowen signed up thinking that the ownership issue was not so urgent as long as Gold, Kretinsky and Tripp Smith voted in unison.
I hate fat fingers and autocorrect on a mobile phone. I really must proof read my posts.- apologies.
Kretinsky has agreed to sell more than 2 per cent to Jakub Havrlant, a Czech entrepreneur. Isn’t this subject to the same restrictions as Vanesa Gold agreeing to sell to Amanda Stavely’s consortium?
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?
That seems like a good question, Iron Man. I hope you, and the rest of us, get an answer!
Mate these company shareholder agreements can be sizeable docs with hundreds of clauses.
To answer your question he was able to do so under a “Permitted Affiliate” clause in the clubs shareholder agreement so I understand from reading about.
There are probably further caveats in there about what’s permissible when using the above clause
Not directed at you btw but there are so many fans on here throwing in their two penneth about what these highly educated and business savvy executives should be doing without any knowledge of how some of these things work. I’ve not got a scooby but enjoy reading about it as it’s like a boardroom came of chess. But one thing is for sure it all takes time and whilst it’s interesting to see how it plays out I am worried about it stopping us from getting off to a good start which is badly needed in the championship.
@Jimbo 2, you seem to have more idea than most!
What’s your view on what will happen, will Kretinsky be able to increase his holdings and thereby hijacking Staveley’s bid?
I would much prefer Staveley as fans from other clubs that’.Kretinsky owns don’t seem to be too happy with him….
Honestly mate I’ve not got a scooby other than what I read about the circus that is WH.
In my opinion (and my opinion only) Kretinsky has already blocked the Staveley move at least for now. What we’ll see is him now getting his backside into gear and buying the Gold shares (finally).
I don’t blame the Golds btw, Kretinsky has been mucking about and she’s forced his hand so he’s now having to act.
It’s been mentioned already elsewhere but I can see Staveley and her group going after Sullivan’s shares for a round 2 with Kretinsky which actually I think he’ll be fine with as he clearly doesn’t want full ownership of WH.
For the record I think Staveley and her group would be better for WH long terms than Kretinsky.
Hi Jimbo 2, thanks very much for the synopsis.
Yeah I don’t blame the Golds either, not sure what Kretinsky is up to but the club/shares are there for him if he wants them so why the messing about. If he doesn’t want all of WH then why does he want half etc, can’t see the benefit for him at all unless he wants to get shares even cheaper.
Just sit back and try and enjoy the ride mate.
The relegation is a blip, I suspect Kretinsky realised long ago that Sully wasn’t running things effectively.
With TV monies increasing along with profit on players (if you buy the right players) I suspect most idiots could turn a profit in the EPL.
Technically it does as acknowledged in Kretinsky’s statement, but in reality it doesn’t as there is no one on the board to buy them. Sullivan can’t because the Football Refulator would block it, Gold is selling out and Tripp-SITH is an ally of Kretinsky and has no ambitions to be a major shareholder.
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.