Cue jokes about emails beginning
"Dear Mr Hill-Wood,
My name is Aliko. You have won big cash monies. Simply send me your bank account details and national insurance number and I will ensure you are very well paid etc etc.."
From The Sunday Times
May 23, 2010
Nigerian billionaire enters battle for Arsenal
Ben Marlow
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/b ... 133927.ece
"One of Africa’s richest men is plotting to buy a stake in Arsenal in a move that could trigger a full-blown takeover battle for the Premier League football club.
Aliko Dangote, a billionaire Nigerian industrialist, is in talks to buy the 16% stake being sold by Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith, the club’s fourth-largest shareholder. Dangote is understood to have registered his interest in buying the holding with Blackstone, the American finance house that has been given the job of finding a buyer for the shares.
Bracewell-Smith’s stake is currently worth £96m, but she is seeking up to £160m for the shares. Her holding is key to the future ownership of the north London club.
Arsenal’s two biggest investors, Stan Kroenke, the American sports tycoon, and Alisher Usmanov, the Russian oligarch, are also contemplating buying the shares. If either of the two men were to buy the Bracewell-Smith holding, they would be forced to launch a full takeover offer for the club.
Arsenal, which has a market value of £606m, is one of a number of Premier League clubs that could change hands this summer. Liverpool’s American owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, have recently put their club up for sale.
Manchester United has attracted bid interest from a fan-based consortium that wants to wrest control from the Glazer family.
Dangote is a passionate football fan and has the wealth to compete with Kroenke and Usmanov. Forbes magazine recently ranked him among the world’s 500 richest people, with a fortune estimated at $2.5 billion (£1.7 billion). He has helped the Nigerian national football team with cash presents and has stood for the post of president of the Nigerian football association.
He recently celebrated his 53rd birthday with the purchase of an eight-seater Bombardier jet, regarded as one of the most sophisticated private planes in the world.
He is the founder of the Dangote Group, a manufacturing empire that started in the late 1970s as a cement importer and which now has interests ranging from sugar and flour to telecommunications and oil.
He is a close friend of Nigeria’s former president Olusegun Obasanjo. Until recently he was the head of the Nigerian stock exchange but was forced to step down after falling out with Africa Petroleum, one of Nigeria’s biggest companies, which accused Dangote of manipulating its share price, a charge he has appealed against.
The Nigerian tycoon is thought to have made it on to a shortlist of about 10 investors, drawn up by Blackstone.
The holding was put up for sale earlier this year. It was inherited by Bracewell-Smith’s husband Sir Charles Bracewell-Smith and transferred to her name in 2005.
The stake has attracted interest from investors in Asia, the Middle East, eastern Europe and America. It is expected to be sold for about £15,000 a share, against a current market price of £10,000.
Sources close to Kroenke say he is the favourite to buy the holding. The American, who currently owns 29.9%, the largest single shareholding in the club, ultimately wants control and has told Blackstone he plans to bid.
Kroenke is also more popular with the Arsenal directors than Usmanov, who owns a 26% stake through his Red & White Holdings investment vehicle but has failed to gain a seat on the club’s board.
A buyer could be selected before the emergency budget on June 22, which is expected to put up capital gains tax on certain types of investment. A rise in the tax rate could cost Bracewell-Smith millions of pounds. "
Nigerian Billionaire interested in Arsenal Takeover?
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VforVictory
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MegaGooner
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Bring Back Pires
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VforVictory
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Just because he can afford 16% of the shares, it doesn't mean he can afford 100% of the club, at £700m or so. And it certainly doesn't mean he'll definitely have money left over to plough into the team.VforVictory wrote:Bottom line is he would have to pay for the shares, so regardless of where his money is from it would have to actually exist
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MegaGooner
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Like anyone else did that......Maybe his 16% could help the club in other ways...digger wrote:Just because he can afford 16% of the shares, it doesn't mean he can afford 100% of the club, at £700m or so. And it certainly doesn't mean he'll definitely have money left over to plough into the team.VforVictory wrote:Bottom line is he would have to pay for the shares, so regardless of where his money is from it would have to actually exist
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VforVictory
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He might not want to takeover the club, might just be looking to buy some shares. Which is his right if he has the cash.digger wrote:Just because he can afford 16% of the shares, it doesn't mean he can afford 100% of the club, at £700m or so. And it certainly doesn't mean he'll definitely have money left over to plough into the team.VforVictory wrote:Bottom line is he would have to pay for the shares, so regardless of where his money is from it would have to actually exist
I would just remind everyone that none of this would be happening unless the "custodians of the club" who according to Mr. Peter Hill-Wood weren't in it "for a few bob" but "for Arsenal" Weren't all too happy to sell out.
Even Mr. Hill-Wood has pocket almost 2 million selling to Stan Kroenke "that sort" that Mr Hill-Wood didn't want around Arsenal and insisted wasn't needed either.
Even Mr. Hill-Wood has pocket almost 2 million selling to Stan Kroenke "that sort" that Mr Hill-Wood didn't want around Arsenal and insisted wasn't needed either.
Seems Peter Hill-Wood is thinking the same thingdigger wrote:Excuse the racial stereotypes....
...but, Nigerian businessman suggests scammer to me. I'm sure that's completely wrong, but fuck it, we don't need an oligarch to "invest" in our club, regardless of where they are from.
The Gunners' chief insisted: "I'd prefer that Arsenal remained British owned for traditional reasons. I think we have a deeper understanding of Arsenal than someone coming in from Timbuktu who puts down a billion pounds to buy it.
My guess would be if this bloke were to take over the Hill-Wood Dynasty at Arsenal would be D.O.A.
although that may already be so.
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Champagne Charlie
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LOL what is laughable is the majority of responses on here. Just google the man's name.
As the report suggests he's Nigeria's preodminant industrialist for the last 4 decades.
This is a serious businessman. No flies on him.
Yet, folks would rather have an investor with a far more dubious past.
And you betray yourselves by saying: "Excuse the racial stereotypes...", just be honest and say you're highlighting a racial stereotype.
As the report suggests he's Nigeria's preodminant industrialist for the last 4 decades.
This is a serious businessman. No flies on him.
Yet, folks would rather have an investor with a far more dubious past.
And you betray yourselves by saying: "Excuse the racial stereotypes...", just be honest and say you're highlighting a racial stereotype.
