Billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev's makes takeover move that may be key to Amanda Staveley's Tottenham plan
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In April, what was a poorly kept secret in the world of football finance emerged in the public domain for the first time. Tottenham, Daniel Levy announced, were actively seeking new investment.
Levy is using the services of the Rothschild bank, whose reputation – as you would imagine – would get almost any businessperson on the planet to pick up the phone.
As is customary when a Premier League club is put for sale either in a minority or majority capacity, the usual sovereign wealth funds, private equity titans, and multi-club investors have all been linked.
At present, former Newcastle United supremo Amanda Staveley is the most likely to buy into Spurs.
She is believed to have raised around £500m for a new football investment project and has zeroed in on Tottenham, who are valued at around £3.75bn by Levy and ENIC.
If Staveley is to invest, it would be as a minority partner. She is likely also to either borrow to finance a deal, just as she did at Newcastle, or act as the public face of a part-takeover in exchange for equity.
The 51-year-old financier engineered the sale of Manchester City to Sheikh Mansour’s Abu Dhabi United Group in 2008 and has previously been part of attempts take over Liverpool.
She, along with her husband and business partner Mehrdad Ghodoussi, is one of the best deal brokers in the business and also proved herself accomplished at running a club during her time at St James’ Park.
Indeed, Staveley said at Bloomberg’s Money, Women & Power conference last week that she is desperate to return to football as soon as possible – and she wants a hands-on role.
With that in mind, is Spurs the right place for her? That is the question many, including Liverpool University football finance lecturer Kieran Maguire, are asking.
Speaking to TBR Football earlier this year, Maguire said: "Levy is in no hurry to move on from Spurs. He is an immovable object and he is a Spurs fan.
"He wants validation for his project and that will only come when Spurs win a trophy or two. It could be a very long wait before he is ready to sell entirely.”
A £500m investment would, at Levy and ENIC’s valuation, give Staveley’s consortium a stake of just over 13 per cent in Spurs.
That is around the same equity stake as the 30,000 external shareholders who have remained in situ since the days Spurs were a publicly listed company. It wouldn’t even guarantee her a seat on the board.
Staveley has other options on the table and, if she is not convinced she will have adequate operational input at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, could well pursue them.
And developments elsewhere in football’s mergers and acquisitions market could provide an opening for her to do exactly that.
- READ MORE: Sheikh Jassim's emphatic Tottenham takeover stance emerges after £5bn Man United bid collapse
Amanda Staveley could be tempted away from Tottenham amid AS Monaco takeover developments
When it was first reported in June that Staveley and her PCP Capital group had Spurs in their crosshairs, one other specific club was mentioned as an alternative.
AS Monaco, the eight-time French champions, are for sale. Their owner, the Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, has said so explicitly.
Rybolovlev owns a controlling majority of the club’s equity and, after receiving a number of unsolicited offers, has decided the time is right to cash in.
Staveley is interested in AS Monaco, whose desirable location, history, and stellar infrastructure makes them an attractive option.
What’s more, majority ownership would be available for a fraction of the price that Staveley might otherwise pay for an ultimately modest stake in Spurs.
Now, in what is the clearest hint yet that Rybolovlev could be ready to up sticks in the principality, Brazilian outlet Globo are reporting that the oligarch is now interested in taking over Vasco da Gama.
The recently vanquished Copa Libertadores finalists are situated in Brazil, a market with one of the highest potential yields in football.
If he needs to make a deal happen, it could – in theory, at least – accelerate his attempts to sell Monaco, opening the door for Staveley and her consortium to take over.
That clearly would not be good news for the Tottenham fans desperate for salvation from what they perceive as the overly commercially-orientated ENIC-Levy regime.
- READ MORE: The other clubs Amanda Staveley could take over after she finally addresses Tottenham link
Spurs alternatives: Other options available to Staveley
It is a saturated market as far as takeovers or minority investments are concerned, both in the Premier League and further afield.
The dissolution of 777 Partners’ multi-club empire means half a dozen clubs in three different continents are for sale.
Domestically, West Ham, Brentford, Wolves and a handful of others are also seeking minority investment.
And developments in South and Central America, where a smattering of federations are inviting private investment for the first time, means there could be openings for Staveley there too.
Similarly, and perhaps most evocatively, Real Madrid Florentino Perez has signalled that they too could also be seeking fresh capital in a landmark move away from the Socio model
