Amanda Staveley could repeat £60m Newcastle trick to invest in Tottenham - Kieran Maguire view
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As the woman who brought PIF to Tyneside, Amanda Staveley is deified by Newcastle United supporters. Now, Tottenham fans are hoping she can create the same magic in North London.
Staveley is currently under scrutiny following a recent report that appears to show Mohamed Bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, was directly involved in the Newcastle takeover in 2021.
That is despite the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) giving the Premier League legally binding assurances to the contrary.
Staveley meanwhile is leading a consortium that wants to invest in Tottenham, having raised £500m for a new football project following her departure from St James’ Park.
Daniel Levy‘s infamous negotiation style, not to mention his reported £3.75bn valuation of Spurs, suggests that the process – like the Staveley-led takeovers of Man City or Newcastle – will be no cakewalk.
And with a number of recent developments in the story, TBR Football spoke exclusively to Liverpool University football finance lecturer and Price of Football author Kieran Maguire to understand the latest.
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Spurs to host the Super Bowl?
Staveley was recently spotted at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium watching the NFL London Games.
Spurs received around £15m in funding from the NFL to build their world class stadium and have been handsomely rewarded on the 10 occasions they have hosted matches in N17.
The club’s commercial appeal is one of the reasons that it is so attractive to Staveley as an investment project, as well as to the private equity and Middle Eastern investors reportedly also interested.
Thanks to recent comments from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, it has even been suggested that Spurs could be the first non-US host of the Super Bowl.
“Spurs are in a sweet spot in terms of the appeal to the NFL,” said Maguire.
“The UK is a country with a significant interest in the product. The fanbase are willing to pay prices that are considerably higher than football.
“There are also historical links between the US and UK that they can leverage. The council have given Spurs the license to stage a number of extra events per year.
“The only issue is the physical transformation of the stadium to something that is NFL-friendly in terms of the pitch and clearing out the megastore and moving in the NFL merchandise.
“It is more of a logistical issue. There are no doubts that they would want to do this.
“US NFL fans would be more than happy to come across. It is an event for them, plus UK fans would help it sell out a number of times over.
“The stadium itself is designed to separate fans from their wallets. Spurs are exceptionally good at that.
“The other thing to say is that there is no price resistance. The NFL are used to paying top dollar, whereas there is still a feeling among football fans that they have a legacy attachment to the fact it is a working class sport.”
Amanda Staveley latest
In news that rocked some Spurs fans in recent weeks, two companies that Staveley used in her acquisition and ownership of Newcastle have been liquidated.
One of those companies, PCP Capital Partners, which now goes by the name Apollo Belvedere Services, was reportedly the vehicle through which she wanted to invest in Spurs.
However, Staveley has since told Bloomberg that she has chosen voluntary liquidation in response to the imminent rise in capital gains tax that Kier Starmer’s Labour government are poised to enact.
But could the expected hike in capital gains tax, which applies to individuals rather than companies, affect Staveley’s investment in Spurs, or indeed Levy’s business affairs?
“I am sure Levy has trusts through which the sale would go through that would minimise the impact,” said Maguire.
“Some people are of the view that if you’re really rich, you don’t pay tax. It is people in the middle who can’t afford the best accountants who get caught up in it.
“So I don’t think Staveley or Levy would see this as an issue because the majority of the shares are owned by ENIC, who would pay corporation tax as opposed to capital gains.
“As far as Levy’s personal shares are concerned, he will have vehicles through which he can plan and arrange his tax affairs to minimise any potential impact.
“The majority of clubs in English football are foreign owned. Man United are registered in the Cayman Islands and traded in New York, so I don’t think this is an issue.”
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Staveley’s wealth: how she will fund Tottenham investment?
Staveley is an accomplished financier but she has encountered a number of hurdles in recent years, not least the legal case she recently lost against Greek shipping tycoon Victor Restiss.
That case reportedly left Staveley close to bankruptcy, which has led some fans to question whether she has the means to invest in Spurs.
In reality, as a deal broker, Staveley was never likely to use her own capital to acquire a minority stake in the club.
With Newcastle United, Staveley borrowed from deal partners the Rueben Brothers to fund her stake.
Paradoxically, she repaid that loan with the cash that she made by later selling her stake to the Reuben Brothers for £60m, which was a profit on the cash she originally invested.
And Maguire forecasts that she could take a similar approach with Tottenham: “Amanda Staveley is an amazing networker rather than being cash rich.
“She backs her belief in individual projects by taking a minority stake, but she doesn’t necessarily have the cash resources to do so.
“She will therefore manage her finances by finding support to take an equity stake with a view to getting an earn-out at the sale point.”
