On the face of it, a report this morning suggesting that Daniel Kretinsky’s position as largest shareholder and de facto Chairman of the board at West Ham United might be about to change seems a little far fetched.
The claim is that Amanda Stanley and Husband Ghoudoussi’s PCP Capital Partners seek an equal shareholding in West Ham alongside Kretinsky – and that is what is holding up the Sporting Director appointment.
The report made by greenstreethammers.com, claims an insider has spilt the beans on the delay in appointing former Newcastle man Steve Nickson as Sporting Director, claiming that Nickson wants to come on board only if Staveley and her Husband’s business are equal shareholders with the Czech Sphinx.
New report claims Staveley’s PCP capital wants equal ownership alongside Kretinsky – and THAT is what is holding up the appointment of a Sporting Director
Whether this is taking two plus two and making twenty three – who can say – but their report is adamant:
“Staveley’s ask of equal equity stalls buyout of Sullivan and sporting director appointment”
Runs their heading, confirming that: “As talks with the Amanda Staveley led consortium heat up, West Ham’s move to hire Steve Nickson as their sporting director have cooled as he waits for the board room to take shape.”
The detail is fleshed out behind their principal claim accordingly:
“According to a club source, GSH has been told that Staveley would only be interested in coming into West Ham if she had an equal stake along with Daniel Křetínský, who just recently became the majority shareholder at West Ham and is now perceived as leading the charge to remove David Sullivan completely from the team.
In order to do that, Křetínský would need to orchestrate a buyout of Sullivan’s shares himself or allow Staveley and her partner/husband Mehrdad Ghodoussi, as well as their firm PCP Capital, to come in and become an equal stakeholder.
“What Mr. Křetínský doesn’t want is a bidding war to begin for [Sullivan’s] shares,” the source said. “He welcomed the idea of having Staveley as a partner in the club and on the board, but the eagerness to have equal equity has caused him to pause.”
Curiouser and curiouser. It would certainly explain the ‘delay’ in appointing Nickson whilst the ‘talks’ continue. However this ‘pause’ – real or not – is currently holding up the operational side of West Ham’s rebuild in the midst of a crucial transfer window with several huge transfer deals in need of urgent attention.
Whilst instinct may be to rubbish the likelihood of Staveley’s company miraculously popping up as equal partners with billionaire Kretinsky, GSH’s report does merit consideration.
Either way, the Irons need a resolution as far as the Sporting Director situation is concerned pretty much immediately – even if the behind the scenes horse trading for David Sullivan’s shares takes weeks or more likely months to conclude.
The inactivity is reminiscent of Sullivan. It’s obviously not straightforward and the World Cup makes transfer progress more difficult but I was really hoping we’d get away from last minute panics.
This is a big test of Kretinsky to make everything come together and deal with the urgent priorities urgently.
The Wikipedia article makes fairly clear what many of us suspect Staveley’s role to be:
“In 2008, the Financial Times described her firm, PCP Capital Partners, as really amounting to Staveley and her legal partner, Craig Eadie, and explained that, although based in Mayfair, London, the company acts ‘via offshore private equity affiliates’ as a vehicle for the investment of Middle Eastern money, with Staveley acting as an adviser on those deals.”
After the failure of a previous investment known as Q.ton, Staveley moved to Dubai, where she built connections centred on Abu Dhabi, while also extending more broadly across the Middle East.
At the end of 2008, as Barclays sought to recapitalise following the financial crisis, the bank raised money privately through Middle Eastern investment rather than accepting a British government bail-out. Staveley reportedly earned a £30 million fee for her role in that transaction. In 2010, The Daily Telegraph reported that Sheikh Mansour’s disposal of his stake in Barclays had made him a profit of around £2.25 billion.
With that in mind, the obvious question is this: who does she have lined up to buy those shares from PCP Capital?
I find it hard to believe that Staveley’s own relatively modest personal wealth would be enough to back what looks like an opportunistic bid for a club whose share price may have been depressed by relegation concerns. So, if PCP Capital is involved, I would be very interested to know whose money is ultimately standing behind it.