Former Man United advisor shares good news for Tottenham part-takeover
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Tottenham are search for minority investment, with Daniel Levy pledging that a portion of the proceeds will be reinvested into strengthening the team.
Over the years, several groups have been linked with either a full or part takeover of Spurs, with Qatar Sports Investment and MSP Sports Capital among those to have reportedly been interested.
The latest name apparently courted by Levy is Amanda Staveley, who is said to be leading a consortium ready to invest £650m in Tottenham.
The former Newcastle United supremo begrudgingly departed St James’ Park in the summer and is now looking for her next football project, with AS Monaco another potential option.
Staveley is typically a deal broker rather than a direct investor, which is why the liquidation of two of her football investment vehicles recently is not beleived to represent a death knell for her Spurs ambitions.
She did take an equity stake as part of the deal which saw the Saudi PIF assume control at Newcastle, but she borrowed from fellow minority investors the Rueben Brothers to make that happen.
Paradoxically, she has since repaid that loan with the proceeds from the profit of the sale of her stake to the Rueben Brothers themselves.
But Staveley’s consortium is not the only game in town.
Speaking exclusively to TBR Football recently, finance expert and industry insider explained that interest in Spurs from the Middle East and US is growing.
Man United takeover broker shares insight
One sector that has increasingly embraced the Premier League in recent years is private equity, particularly from the United States.
Several of these private equity firms, which raise money from institutional investors and high net-worth individuals to invest in private companies, are known to have explored Spurs as an investment prospect.
However, there have been some suggestions of late that private equity’s interest in football as an asset class is cooling. And without a direct window into the market, it is difficult to prove otherwise.
Luckily for Spurs and Daniel Levy’s hope of extracting maximum value from auctioning off a minority stake in Spurs, Raine Group partner Colin Neville has outlined the shape of the industry at present.
Speaking at the Leaders Week conference in London this week – which, incidentally, was attended by several Tottenham executives – Neville said [via City AM]: "Sports IP is so valuable.
“These are brands. These are cultural assets. In some cases, clubs have over 1bn followers, which is bigger than many religions.
"Prior to Covid, you probably had five or six private equity funds interested in some of the assets that we were working with. It's easily 50, and that's just in the US.
"I don't see that slowing down anytime soon. There are now sports-specific funds that are being created and there's certainly a lot of healthy demand for the asset class."
As a key adviser in the deal that saw Sir Jim Ratcliffe become Man United’s largest individual shareholder earlier this year, Neville knows what he is talking about.
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Tottenham takeover: What is the long game for potential investors?
Typically, institutional investors in private equity firms tend to target a chunky return on their investment in cycles of five to seven years.
However, any investment in an elite football club is likely to take far longer than that to realise liquidity.
At Spurs and other high-end clubs, investors are hoping that technology – the metaverse or augmented reality, for example – can help monetise overseas fans and increase enterprise value.
But Spurs’ valuation of around £3.75bn to be justified, we would need to see huge growth over a sustained period in this department.
