Mike Ashley’s sale of Newcastle United has moved another step closer this afternoon, with breaking news from Sky Sports that PCP Capital Partners – the investment company run by Amanda Staveley – has now signed a confidentiality agreement (NDA) with the club’s owners – with the due diligence period having now commenced as a result.
Latest: Understand talks between Staveley & #nufc were v.positive. She's now signed non-disclosure. Progressing swiftly & positively. 1/2
— Pete Graves (@PeteGravesSky) October 19, 2017
A story in the Daily Mail this morning claimed a £300m bid had been tabled by Staveley. Whilst these reports are yet to be confirmed, this news is another clear signal that her potential takeover of NUFC is very real and is moving forward at a rate of knots.
Following this announcement, The Chronicle’s Lee Ryder has confirmed that her firm PCP Partners HAVE now entered the ‘due diligence’ period with NUFC, meaning a comprehensive appraisal of a business is undertaken by a prospective buyer (Staveley and co.), in order to establish the clubs assets and liabilities, as well as evaluating our commercial potential:
Amanda Staveley and PCP Partners have now entered the due diligence period #nufc
— Lee Ryder (@lee_ryder) October 19, 2017
For anyone wanting further clarification on the significance of a non-disclosure agreement, here is a suitable explanation offered by The Chronicle’s Chris Waugh earlier today:
What is a NDA?
“There are various different names for a non-disclosure agreement – including proprietary information agreement (PIA), secrecy agreement (SA), confidential disclosure agreement (CDA) and confidentiality agreement (CA) – but in Britain they are most frequently referred to as NDAs.
“Essentially, a NDA is a legal contract between at least two parties – in this case Newcastle United and any prospective buyer(s) – which allows them to share confidential information.
“Perhaps unsurprisingly given its name, neither party is allowed to disclose any of the data, material or knowledge – which can be mutually shared, or provided by a single side.
“Non-public business information is able to be accessed by both parties in the agreement, though they are strictly forbidden from sharing it with third parties.
“Normally, such an agreement is signed when two companies are looking to merge or work together, or indeed when a takeover is potentially in the offing.
“If any of the parties break the terms of the NDA, then action can be taken against them – and financial penalties, or in the most-serious cases criminal charges, can be sought.”
It’s all happening folks! Fingers crossed an acceptable bid will be made in the aftermath of these talks – THAT will be the key for Ashley at the end of the day.