With more twists than a snake slalom, the boardroom battle for West Ham United has taken a new turn this evening after Daniel Kretinsky’s move to block Amanda Staveley’s bid for the Gold family shares earlier today.
Kretinsky countered with a proposal as we covered, to divest two per cent of his own shares which, counter intuitively but in line with the share agreement with Sullivan and Gold, would allow him to use his pre-emption right to hoover up the whole Gold shareholding and deny the Staveley consortium the chance of buying into the club.
For those who thought the battle was over, it has only just begun.
According to Henry Winter, the journalist behind the Football Boardroom podcast, the gloves are off and Staveley is clearly not messing about:
“Amanda Staveley’s firm PCP made the same offer to Sullivan as the made to the Gold family – to buy his entire stake at a share valuation of £600 m for 100%, as well as the full 25.1 Gold stake which btw is a cheque for £150m to them, @footyboardroom understands.”
Which is a new level for Kretinsky to respond: Clearly Staveley is offering ‘Premier League’ money for the club – which David Sullivan was quoted as saying he wanted for his own shares, just last week.
Which also begs the question as to whether there’s a bid in – which we don’t know about – for Tripp Smith’s ten percent shareholding too.
Fascinating times. Hostile takeover indeed. Repercussions galore for far cleverer people than I to ponder over tonight and respond tomorrow!
Who the hell would spend 750m to buy just over half of a Div 1 club??
Your’e not doing the maths KJ. She’s valuing 100% of the shares at £600m which means Sullivan’s 38% is worth about 228m, Kretinsky’s 28% worth 168m and Gold’s 25% worth 150m as per her confirmed offer.
I really hope Stavely succeeds in buying out Sullivan and Gold. Surely Sullivan realises the games up. Why are the GSB out mob not going all out now to encourage Sullivan to sell up and get out of our club. All the protests at the start of last season which in my opinion had a hand in our premier league demise abd then when you want these protesters to put the pressure on Sullivan to sell up, they do nothing.
It’s quite clear Sullivan wants his shares bought. The only way that happens is through Stavely. DK has zero intention of buying the controlling stake from Sullivan at the pre-agreed rate, therefore PCP represents the only way Sullivan his money out before he’s too old to count it. Sullivan could actually buy some of the gold shares on first refusal as largest shareholder and take his share to 49%, leaving just 14% for DK which is pretty useless to him s as it only gets him to 41%. Sullivan could then sell to Stavely at the agreed rate that DK wouldn’t be prepared to pay and also clearly isn’t interested in being a controlling shareholder. This then would leave Stavely to mop up what remains of the Gold shares which could be up to 14% taking her shares to 63%. At this point sure is obliged to buy out the rest and call in her mystery investors for financing that.
I don’t see DK’s stomach for this fight. He only really wants a minority shareholding and as such solidly really get in the way of anyone wanting to be a controlling or majority shareholder. It’s sad, but it’s business and DK hasn’t exactly been the positive guiding influence during his time here has he. Football sometimes needs a bit of dynamism to enthuse the club in to life. We are probably in dire need for exactly that kind of shock to get us waking up from whatever spell Sullivan and Brady has cast upon the club for 15 years.
Given Sullivan’s current predicament it’s highly debatable that the Football Regulator would allow Sullivan to increase his stake. Sullivan has shown no interest in selling his shares and wants to wait until we are back in the Premier League (if they ever happens). Not sure where you ar getting your inside info on DK from, All of his public statements concerning buying up Gold’s shares in the 2 rounds of pre-emption right bidding contradict any view that he doesn’t want control or indeed has the stomach to fight for control. Yes he doesn’t want to buy Sullivan’s shares at the pre agreed price because it massively over values them in our current state and who would? If Staveley does it just shows that the football club is of no interest to her and is looking to exploit the property angle
So as far as Staveley and her unknown consortium are concerned be careful what you wish for. She has already stated in public that she is looking for a club with the opportunity to monetise property so her intentions are purely about flipping a profit and nothing about football and the long term interests of the club
I’ve got a horrible feeling this is a ruse. Is it possible Sullivan and staveley colluded to push kretinsky into paying the full prem value for his shares
Sure it wouldn’t be the first time PCP was mis-sold.
“Angel Dust” my @r$e.
No, she knows that DK won’t pay that rate or wants a controlling stake either. Stavely wants full control of board
and outright share holding control.
All of these stories and specualtion around the share tug of war are fine, but in reality she can make what ever offer she likes for anyones shares – the reality is they have to be offered to the other shareholders and DK first at the same price, so they get first refusal. If Stavely did make an offer to DS at those prices, and DK doesnt take up the option then good luck to her I say – much rather have her with 38% than Sullivan.
I guess time is of the essence she has to get a greater share holding than DK so she has preemptive rights priority to get the Gold shares.
It doesnt work like that, what ever shares Stavely makes an offer for will always be offered at the same price to existing shareholders first. After the shares have been offered to the existing shareholders, if they dont take up the option to purchase those shares at the same price, only then can Stavely purchase them.
Only DK would then have preemptive rights on Sully’s shares but at a more reasonable price than on the contract.
No she doesn’t. Premption- rights only apply to existing shareholders.
This can only be good news for West Ham. If kretinsky buys the Gold shares. And Amanda and her consortium buys Sullivan, and the Tripp shares.
Fascinating?
Is Newcastle in a good place?
Be careful what you wish for
If you mean, did Newcastle have a bad season, then yes. Alternatively, they also played in the Champions league for the 2nd time in 3 years and managed to win major silverware. The above was born out of and created by the Stavely board. Newcastle fans will attest to that fact and won’t have much bad said about her running of the club. That sort of careful wishing ??
Except it wasn’t a Staveley Board. She was just a public facing front for the real buyers of Newcastle. She was even given her holding as a freebie by other members of the consortium which got diluted on every rights issue because she didn’t have the wealth to participate. Once she served her purpose she was sent on her way and now she is trying the same thing at West Ham. Newcastle is in a financial mess and unable to spend its way out of trouble and all its high value players are being sold. It’s no wonder Eddie Howe walked out. The grand sounding PCP Capital Partners is just her and her husband plus one or two others. She isn’t the highly successful businesswoman a lot on here think, but is very good at acting as a public facing front for others who like to keep their identities private and earns a commission or advisory fee for doing so. Every true West Ham supporter should thinking be careful what you wish for since it’s clear they are trying to strip,value from the land the stadium is built on. I’d rather have Karen Brady ( as poor as she was) every day of the week.
Half what Sullivan was claiming the club was worth last year, incredibly unlikely he’ll take it.
Stavelys has got some brass neck on her.
Can Gold intercept the 2%Kret deal, as she is already a shareholder, which if successful would stuff Kret and surely give the other lot a walk in the park if they’re willing to buy the lot
No, because the pre-emption rights process and the maths involved both work in Kretinsky’s favour. If Gold buys the 2% it leaves Kretinsky in exactly same position as it is if the Czech buyer takes them. He still has pre-emption rights on Gold’s 25% shareholding and doesn’t have to buy the 2 % back. This would leave Gold with a 2% holding she doesn’t want.
The whole process isn’t that complicated, but my background in Investment Management helps.