The owners of EPL side Swansea City "are set to make millions by
selling their shares to American investors," according to David Conn of the London GUARDIAN. The deal, signed in principle by club Chair Huw Jenkins, values Swansea at around £100M ($144M), "exactly 100 times more" than the £1M paid for the club by the nine shareholders, including the trust, during and after a financial crisis in '02. The agreement proposes the eight shareholders apart from the trust -- which owns 21.1% of the club and whose elected director, Huw Cooze, was "furious at being kept unaware of the negotiations" -- sell "most of their shares" to a consortium led by U.S. sports team investors Stephen Kaplan and Jason Levien. Intense discussions since "have led to suggestions not all the shareholders will sell," and Levien and Kaplan may buy only a 60% stake, but their valuation, for a Premier League club awaiting the "next tranche of vast TV fortunes starting next season," remains around £100M. So Jenkins' 13.2% stake, which cost him £125,000 to buy, is valued at £13.2M ($19M). He "is understood not to be planning to sell all his shares and is likely to remain the chairman if the takeover completes." Local hotelier Martin Morgan and his wife Louisa are the largest shareholders with a 23.7% stake. Martin Morgan "is said not to be intending to sell, and Levien may try to have separate discussions with Louisa Morgan, who controls more than half of their stake." The millions to be made by the shareholders who do sell follow £4M ($5.8M) already paid to them "all in dividends over the past four years." The trust, for its 21.1%, has been paid more than £800,000 ($1.15M), which it has used to buy new shares and for a "rainy day" fund. Cooze, who has told a trust forum he was "pretty damned hurt" at the secrecy of the negotiations, "is now seeking to rebuild bridges with his co-directors and safeguard the trust’s position." Levien’s revised suggestion to buy 60% "is intended to show the trust a preparedness to work with them, after supporters’ hostile reaction" to the proposed acquisition of 75.1% control (
GUARDIAN, 4/19).
