Premier League side Everton majority investor Farhad Moshiri "has secured the right to increase his stake" in the club, according to Bill Gleeson of the LIVERPOOL ECHO. Last February, Moshiri announced that "he had bought a 49.9% stake in the Goodison Park club" for a reported £87.5M ($126M), but "this was not enough to give him a majority stake, a fact that has puzzled many fans and financial experts." Moshiri "bought his shares from Robert Earle, Bill Kenwright and Jon Woods." At the time, Moshiri "stayed silent about whether he intended to increase his stake at any point in the future, something many observers say would be necessary before the Iranian born billionaire would invest large sums of money in Everton’s playing squad or a new stadium." Moshiri has reportedly already "clinched a deal that gives him the right to buy more Everton shares." He holds his stake in Everton "through an Isle of Man-based company called Blue Heaven Holdings." Documents lodged at The Isle of Man’s Companies Registry show that Kenwright, Woods and another long-time Everton shareholder, Arthur Abercromby, have already granted Moshiri "the option to buy more of their shares." If all of the three sellers’ outstanding shares are bought by Moshiri, "it would take his stake to just over 76% of the club." That would be "enough to give him undisputed control over all of the affairs of the club." Experts say that the exercise of Moshiri’s option "might depend on certain events coming to pass, but this could be anything from personal tax matters to the granting of planning permission for a new stadium." Corporate finance adviser James Dow said, "There could be one of a hundred reasons." Dow, whose corporate finance brokerage has bought and sold many businesses, added, "It's unusual" (LIVERPOOL ECHO, 6/2).
