By Kris Gonzo | Senior West Ham Columnist (Follow on X)
Daniel Kretinsky has no intention of selling his West Ham shareholding and still wishes to maintain a controlling interest in the club.
That’s the latest information given to Claret & Hugh by a football insider, and it will certainly be seen as something of a ‘hands off’ warning to Amanda Staveley.
A consortium led by PCP Capital Partners founder Staveley has reached an agreement to buy Vanessa Gold’s 25.1% stake in West Ham.
However, the transaction faces a pre-emption process where existing major shareholders, including Kretinsky, can exercise their rights over the available shares.
Therefore, this remains a very contested situation rather than anything resembling a completed takeover.
Kretinsky has no intention of going anywhere
As part of his attempts to maintain control, Kretinsky has also agreed to sell a 2% stake in West Ham to fellow Czech businessman Jakub Havrlant.
As reported previously by Claret & Hugh, the move forms part of Kretinsky’s attempts to strengthen his position as the battle for control of West Ham intensifies.
However, that has not deterred Staveley, who is understood to be as motivated as ever to eventually take control of the Hammers.
Vanessa Gold could now sell to Staveley
So when Claret & Hugh asked an insider whether there was any chance the Czech billionaire would sell his West Ham shareholding, the answer couldn’t have been much clearer.
“Kretinsky will NOT sell.”
If the information is correct, anybody hoping that Staveley might simply buy out Kretinsky as part of a straightforward takeover can probably forget it.
Liquidity questions remain
The update comes only days after football finance expert Stefan Borson questioned Kretinsky’s liquidity.
As I wrote following Borson’s comments, the finance expert suggested that the Gold family had been waiting for Kretinsky to ‘put his money where his mouth is’ before eventually finding another buyer.
Borson told talkSPORT:
“waiting for Kretinsky to put his money where his mouth is. And for whatever reason, it looks like he wasn’t liquid at that point to be able to buy the shares that he committed to buy or that he indicated he would buy.”
Whilst Kretinsky has an estimated wealth of around €13 billion, Borson’s suggestion was that the Czech billionaire was unable to access the necessary funding to complete the initial purchase of the Gold family shares.
That failure opened the door for Staveley in the first place.
But if the latest messaging coming from Kretinsky’s camp is anything to go by, he has absolutely no intention of stepping aside.
Instead, it looks increasingly likely that he will exercise his options under the pre-emption agreement.
Staveley might be as determined as ever to get control of West Ham, but it appears Kretinsky is equally determined to stop her.
As always the team and supporters come second in a battle for control! Real shame as this is just causing unnecessary distractions in our most important season for decades!
This so called “Finance Expert” didn’t do a lot of homework did he?! Kretinsky through his EP group has 9bn in cash!
Cash poor/illiquid he is not. His energy firm generates colossal investable cash flow per year. Frankly an embarrassing lack of research conducted by Borson.
Won’t sell, won’t buy, won’t invest. Fire risk in the boardroom with all the deadwood lying about.