According to the Daily Mail’s Mike Keegan, Mike Ashley is still refusing to accept any offers which include a relegation clause and instead demanding a ‘straight up’ sale at £300m – something which is off-putting two interested parties who are wary of our league position.
It’s understandable that investors are wary of paying £300m up front, especially given we’re just one point off the drop zone and the fact the club’s value would probably halve if we were to go down.
The report highlights interest from a wealthy US investors and a consortium set up by former Chelsea and Man Utd Chief Executive Peter Kenyon, however it seems Ashley is complicating matters.
Here’s a snippet from the story in the Daily Mail:
An unwillingness to insert a ‘relegation payback’ clause is hampering any potential deal for Newcastle.
Sportsmail revealed last month that a group of ‘seriously wealthy’ American investors can meet Mike Ashley’s £300m valuation for the up-for-sale club.
However they are wary that, should Rafa Benitez’s men suffer relegation, the club’s value would drop through the floor.
As a result, they want to insert a clause which would give them money back as an insurance policy in the event of the Toon dropping into the Championship.
However sources say that there is currently no appetite from Ashley to do so and that the situation is at an impasse.
Other groups have also been looking at a deal for Newcastle, who currently lie a point above the relegation zone in 14th place.
They include a consortium set up by former Manchester United and Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon. Again, however, an unwillingness to negotiate is proving restrictive.
Retail tycoon Ashley is understood to remain wary, following the breakdown of talks with a consortium led by financier Amanda Staveley earlier this year.
It all feels like deja vu, doesn’t it. A similar story emerged this time last year when Amanda Staveley’s interest was making the headlines, and here we are again, with other interested parties having the same problem.
It makes me wonder two things. One, just how serious is Ashley about selling the club and two, just how serious are these ‘interested’ parties about buying the club?
One thing I will say is this. Given the possibility of relegation is always at risk of occurring when looking at things mid-way through a season, why didn’t these interested parties up their interest over the summer when they knew we were a Premier League club.
At that stage they would’ve had the power to come in, spend over the summer and be the masters of their asset’s destiny.
I have no doubt that Ashley is making things difficult and it may have been that he slapped a silly price tag on the club when our Premier League status was guaranteed over the summer, but there is definitely two sides to this, unfortunately.
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Why would you want to claw back funds if the asset suddenly drops in value ? Because you have borrowed to the hilt to make the purchase, and if the asset drops in value, then the banks will want more collatoral or some of their money repaid. This is normal business practice and the sort of thing Ashley (a) should expect/accept and (b) would definitely be doing himself. But, then again, do we want to be owned by investors who are driven by the greedy banks to suck money out of the club for repayments? How would that be much of an improvement on Ashley sucking the money out and using NUFC to bankroll his business ventures (would Ashley have bought HoF if NUFC hadn’t earnt him a cool 100M+ ?!?). It’s all a mercenaries game now – don’t support anyone, just demand entertainment for your (expensive) ticket and support the conference teams or the under 15 kids have a bit of fun. There is no future being a NUFC supporter – the world of top tier footy had changed – Ashley is just a (rather sordid) example of that. 😕
Peter(Quote)
Someone just take the fat **** out
ASH HATER(Quote)
Why on earth would anyone selling a club agree to a payback clause?
1. Once the club is sold Ashley has no control over what the buyers do with the club, so how can he possibly be held responsible for their performance?
2. If you are buying a club you either buy it in the summer or at least before New Year so you can pump funds into it to ensure survival.
You can’t fault Ashley on this one. It’s a bit like someone selling a used car being required to offer money back if it ever breaks down.
Brrrian(Quote)
No one is buying in the summer as it would cost a lot more than the 300mil asking price as they would have to bolster the squad to the tune of 100-150 mil to be competitive (top ten at least) so basically at least 400 million is needed to buy the club and be competitive but then again we have seen clubs promoted spend that sort of money and be relegated so really a clause against relegation does actually make sense to a buyer
Kcey(Quote)
Also buying mid season allows any prospective buyer to see what they would need to spend on players …if we were in top ten would need less and vice versa
Kcey(Quote)
No story there really. We are the reining monarchs for impasse. Ashley won’t spend if Benitez won’t sign lengthy contract, Rafa won’t sign unless money made available; and now this. We just have to stay in our cocoons until something happens, which could be a long gestation period.
Leckybird(Quote)