Dallas Businessman Set For Takeover Of EPL Club Sunderland
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Short, Who Acquired 30% Of Sunderland This
Fall, Could Have Full Control Within 18 Months |
Dallas-based equity firm Lone Star Funds co-Founder Ellis Short, who in September became the largest shareholder of English Premier League (EPL) club Sunderland, is "poised to complete a takeover" of the team, according to Rob Stewart of the London TELEGRAPH. Short, who purchased a 30% stake in Sunderland from the Drumaville consortium, is "set to purchase the rest of their shares." The Sunderland BOD will recommend that the Drumaville group "sell their shares in the near future to Short should he, as expected, exercise options to initially increase his shareholding and mount a full takeover." Sunderland Chair Niall Quinn will "remain at the helm." Stewart notes Short is "known to be an intensely private person and will remain in the background, allowing Quinn to mastermind a strategy to enable the club to challenge for a place in the upper echelons" of the EPL. It is believed that the "economic recession has been painful for members of the Drumaville consortium, who are happy to move aside having provided the foundations for the club to become a top-flight force" (London TELEGRAPH, 12/23). In London, Michael Walker reports Short could take full control of Sunderland within the next 18 months. Short has "effectively controlled Sunderland since the summer and is working with the present" exec board chaired by Quinn. There has been "nothing hostile about Short's takeover" (London INDEPENDENT, 12/23).
KEEPING POSSESSION: EPL club Arsenal investor Alisher Usmanov, the team's largest shareholder, Monday said that he has "no immediate plans to increase" his 24.9% stake in the club. Usmanov: "I am unlikely to at the moment because I have more important financial matters to deal with. But we have never concealed that we would like to acquire a blocking stake of up to 29.9[%] and nothing prevents us doing that. That’s what interests us and, little by little, without hurrying, we are buying up shares from the market.” Usmanov added that he is "deeply concerned about the recent boardroom upheaval" at the club, though he has "no intention of buying" the 15.9% stake in Arsenal owned by Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith, who last week was removed from the club's BOD. Meanwhile, Usmanov also "hinted that the economic crisis had affected his finances." Usmanov: "At the moment I don't want to buy. I don't have the means. Nobody has at the moment" (LONDON TIMES, 12/23).
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