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LONDON: The protracted sale of Premier League club Newcastle United is nearing its conclusion, according to reports.
The British media is reporting that the £300m ($400 million) deal to purchase the northeast England club by PCP Capital Partners has progressed significantly over the last 24 hours after the group, led by financier Amanda Staveley, increased their offer by around £50 million. It has been widely reported that Arabian Gulf money would be used to fund the takeover.
Newcastle owner Mike Ashley and Staveley, the financial entrepreneur who has around $37 billion of Middle Eastern wealth under management, met in London last week to thrash out the finer details of the deal, with Ashley reportedly keen to ensure his company, Sports Direct, is allowed to continue advertising at St. James’ Park, the club’s ground, and that he would be reimbursed should he, as seems likely, fund the spend on the team in the January window next month.
Staveley, the British businesswoman, is the key player in the deal. She helped broker the £210 million deal for Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Mansour to buy Manchester City in 2008 and was earlier this year linked with a deal for Liverpool Football Club, where she was marginally involved in an abortive takeover by Dubai investors in 2007. She was also said to be interested in doing a deal with Tottenham Hotspur, the north London club.
She told Arab News in June that she saw English football as an “attractive investment,” but is believed to have grown interested in Newcastle since then. Newcastle were put up for sale by Ashley in October in order to, according to a club statement, “give the club the best possible opportunity of securing the positioning and investment necessary to take it to the next level, at what is an important time in its history, its present ownership has determined that it is in the best interests of Newcastle United and its for the club to be put up for sale.”
Ashley purchased the club in 2007 for £134 million and tried to sell it in 2009 but failed to find a suitable buyer.