Tottenham part-takeover could move 'very quickly' as £305m Amanda Staveley deal cited - Kieran Maguire
Deal soon? ????
Tottenham are seeking fresh investment, but it is a saturated market in the Premier League at present and Amanda Staveley is the only name to have been explicitly linked so far.
Daniel Levy drives a hard bargain and has appraised Spurs’ enterprise value at around £3.75bn, with the Rothschild bank enlisted to court the market for a new co-investor.
Following her exit from Newcastle United, which it appears was amicable but one-sided in terms of the financier effectively being ousted, Staveley is looking for a new football finance project.
Staveley is interested in Tottenham, although the £500m she has reportedly raised via a consortium of Middle Eastern and US backers would be sufficient only for a minority stake in the North London club.
Levy and ENIC’s motivations for selling a minority stake meanwhile are not entirely clear.
When Joe Lewis was convicted for insider trading and forced to relinquish control of the club to his family trust last year, many speculated that a full takeover could be in the works.
But Levy remains the all-seeing eye at Spurs and has no intentions of vacating his role as chairman and co-owner, meaning Staveley would have to be content with a more subordinate position.
Some have questioned whether that really aligns with what she wants in her return to football.
Staveley has cited the fact she suffers with Huntington’s disease, a degenerative neurological condition, in saying she wants to keep her mind active and not to take a passive role in her next project.
In any case, there have been very few updates in recent weeks about what progress, if any, Staveley has made in talks with Levy and his peers in the Spurs boardroom.
But, as Liverpool University football finance lecturer Kieran Maguire has told TBR Football, thinks could potentially catch fire at any moment.
Tottenham investment could accelerate, says finance expert
Man United were the last club to complete an ownership shakeup, with Sir Jim Ratcliffe becoming the club’s largest individual shareholder with a 27.7 per cent stake.
Everton will soon follow, with Dan Friedkin’s long, long awaited takeover hoped to go through before January.
With West Ham, Wolves, Bournemouth also in the hunt for minority investment, Spurs are operating in a saturated market and one which appears to be moving at glacial speed.
However, Maguire, who is well-connected in the industry, cited the Staveley-orchestrated Newcastle United takeover in 2021 as as evidence that things could change at the drop of a hat.
“When people want to move quickly, they can move very quickly.
“I think you see that in the speed that PIF moved to acquire Newcastle very shortly after they got approval from the Premier League.
“I don’t think there is any urgency with Friedkin, for example, in relation to Everton. There are an awful lot of clubs in play today. You can understand why things are moving slowly at other clubs.
“We are talking about substantial money and it is, to a certain extent, a buyer’s market in terms of what is offered by a seller.
“Some of the sellers have got a bit giddy in terms of asking prices, which has meant the buyers have walked away.
“Even if you want to be a sleeping partner, there is politics involved. Levy thinks nobody can run Spurs as a business better than he can, and I think there’s a lot of merit in that view.”
Who else has been linked with investing in Tottenham?
While Staveley seems to be the only name in publicly in play as it stand, there have been several others connected with a potential full or partial takeover in the past.
In reports that Spurs have previously distanced themselves from, Paris Saint-Germain’s owners Qatar Sports Investments have been linked with buying into the club.
Levy is a known associate of PSG and QSI president Nasser Al-Khelaffi, but UEFA’s conflict of interest rules would make that a complex and unlikely arrangement.
Liberty Media, the owners of Formula One, have also reportedly expressed an interest in the past.
MSP Sports Capital, the investment firm who previously were in talks to buy Everton, also went as far as to conduct due diligence on the club.
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