Daniel Levy and ENIC have confirmed 'long-term investment' at Tottenham as £35m paperwork filed
Today at 01:15 PM
These days, you need to be on the Forbes 500 to own a Premier League club. So is it any wonder that Daniel Levy, who is feeling the heat at Tottenham more than ever before, is yet to find a buyer?
Spurs haven’t won in six league matches. They have won just two in eight in across all competitions – in typically barmy Tottenham fashion, against non-league Tamworth and Premier League leaders Liverpool.
And yet, while many are in North London think the Ange Postecoglou experiment has run its course, it is Daniel Levy who is public enemy number one at present.
Almost universally, the consensus is that Levy – an investment banker and Tottenham season ticket holder in a former life – is to blame for Spurs’ feeble culture, commercial fixation, and 17-year trophy drought.
The immediate concern is results on the pitch, of course. They are 15th in the league table and outside the qualification places in the Europa League ahead of tomorrow’s trip to Hoffenheim, after all.
| Position | Team | PlayedMP | WonW | DrawnD | LostL | ForGF | AgainstGA | DiffGD | PointsPts |
| 12 | Crystal PalaceCrystal Palace | 22 | 6 | 9 | 7 | 25 | 28 | -3 | 27 |
| 13 | Man UtdManchester United | 22 | 7 | 5 | 10 | 27 | 32 | -5 | 26 |
| 14 | West HamWest Ham | 22 | 7 | 5 | 10 | 27 | 43 | -16 | 26 |
| 15 | TottenhamTottenham | 22 | 7 | 3 | 12 | 45 | 35 | 10 | 24 |
| 16 | EvertonEverton | 21 | 4 | 8 | 9 | 18 | 28 | -10 | 20 |
| 17 | WolvesWolves | 22 | 4 | 4 | 14 | 32 | 51 | -19 | 16 |
But there has been far more soul searching about the long-term future and identity of Tottenham Hotspur of late than is usual for a football club.
After almost 25 years of Levy and ENIC, fans are reflecting on whether they support a team or commercial enterprise?
Since Joe Lewis installed a then-38-year-old Levy, initially on an interim basis, as chairman in December 2001, the club’s value has appreciated by a mind-bending 6,000 per cent.
Lewis, an absentee landlord for much of his reign in N17, paid around £45m to take full control of the club from Alan Sugar. If ENIC were to sell tomorrow, they would want well in excess £3bn.
In percentage terms? A 6,567 per cent increase.
| Rank | Team | League | Country | Current Value | 1-Yr Value Change | Revenue (GBP) | Operating Income (GBP) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Real Madrid | Spanish La Liga | Spain | £5.36bn | 9% | £707.39m | £61.67m |
| 2 | Manchester United | English Premier League | England | £5.32bn | 9% | £636.58m | £151.77m |
| 3 | Barcelona | Spanish La Liga | Spain | £4.55bn | 2% | £680.83m | £-117.92m |
| 4 | Liverpool | English Premier League | England | £4.35bn | 2% | £582.76m | £82.68m |
| 5 | Manchester City | English Premier League | England | £4.14bn | 2% | £705.75m | £119.38m |
| 6 | Bayern Munich | German Bundesliga | Germany | £4.06bn | 3% | £634.52m | £68.14m |
| 7 | Paris Saint-Germain | French Ligue 1 | France | £3.57bn | 4% | £612.77m | £-102.27m |
| 8 | Tottenham Hotspur | English Premier League | England | £2.59bn | 14 | £539.91m | £130.56m |
| 9 | Chelsea | English Premier League | England | £2.54bn | 1% | £503.27m | £0m |
| 10 | Arsenal | English Premier League | England | £2.11bn | 15% | £454.69m | £113.41m |
It’s an astonishing level of capital growth, and Spurs have the opportunity to put their valuation of the club to the test given that Levy is seeking a buyer for a minority stake.
Exactly where the money from an equity sale would go isn’t clear, nor is whether Levy is selling any of his own shares in ENIC Sports (he owns 29.9 per cent) or if this process is being led by the Lewis faction.
Incidentally, Spurs say Joe Lewis himself is no longer affiliated with the club following his conviction for insider trading in the US in April last year.
That was around the same time that, in the preamble to another record-breaking set of annual financial accounts, Levy announced that Spurs had commissioned the Rothschild bank to search for new investors.
Even the most modest minority equity sale would almost certainly generated hundreds of millions of pounds. But what exactly would happen to that money?
The latest official financial data could provide insight into one potential scenario.
Financial documents confirm £35m Tottenham cash injection
When an investor buys into a club on a minority basis, there are two possible scenarios:
- The shares simply change hands in a private transaction, from the existing investor to the new one
- New shares are issued, diluting the existing owners’ shareholding
The second scenario is what happened when Tottenham issued £35m worth of new shares ahead of the North London derby defeat to Arsenal last week.
In that transaction, ENIC increased their shareholding by a fraction, from 86.58% to 86.91%, at the expense of the 30,000 external investors who are a legacy of when Spurs were publicly traded.
But what might the money be used for? Speaking exclusively to TBR Football, Liverpool University football finance lecturer Kieran Maguire offered his thoughts.
“You normally only utilise a revolving credit facility for short-term cash needs,” said the Price of Football author.
“In the football industry, that makes sense because you have volatile revenue streams but a fairly constant cost base in terms of wages.
“In the world of accountancy, you match short term to short term and long term to long term.
“A share issue like the one Spurs have done here is long-term investment, so I would anticipate that this will be part of continuing investment in infrastructure that we are seeing in Spurs.
Tottenham’s search for minority investment: Has Daniel Levy found a buyer?
As of this week, there
