Ben Marlow
Aliko Dangote, a billionaire Nigerian industrialist, is in talks to buythe 16% stake being sold by Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith, the club’sfourth-largest shareholder. Dangote is understood to have registered hisinterest in buying the holding with Blackstone, the American financehouse 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 upto £160m for the shares. Her holding is key to the future ownership ofthe north London club.
Arsenal’s two biggest investors, Stan Kroenke, the American sportstycoon, and Alisher Usmanov, the Russian oligarch, are alsocontemplating buying the shares. If either of the two men were to buythe Bracewell-Smith holding, they would be forced to launch a fulltakeover offer for the club.
Arsenal, which has a market value of £606m, is one of a number ofPremier League clubs that could change hands this summer. Liverpool’sAmerican owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, have recently put theirclub up for sale.
Manchester United has attracted bid interest from a fan-based consortiumthat wants to wrest control from the Glazer family.
Dangote is a passionate football fan and has the wealth to compete withKroenke and Usmanov. Forbes magazine recently ranked him among theworld’s 500 richest people, with a fortune estimated at $2.5 billion(£1.7 billion). He has helped the Nigerian national football team withcash presents and has stood for the post of president of the Nigerianfootball association.
He recently celebrated his 53rd birthday with the purchase of aneight-seater Bombardier jet, regarded as one of the most sophisticatedprivate planes in the world.
He is the founder of the Dangote Group, a manufacturing empire thatstarted in the late 1970s as a cement importer and which now hasinterests 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 wasforced to step down after falling out with Africa Petroleum, one ofNigeria’s biggest companies, which accused Dangote of manipulating itsshare price, a charge he has appealed against.
The Nigerian tycoon is thought to have made it on to a shortlist ofabout 10 investors, drawn up by Blackstone.
The holding was put up for sale earlier this year. It was inherited byBracewell-Smith’s husband Sir Charles Bracewell-Smith and transferred toher name in 2005.
The stake has attracted interest from investors in Asia, the MiddleEast, 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. TheAmerican, who currently owns 29.9%, the largest single shareholding inthe club, ultimately wants control and has told Blackstone he plans tobid.
A buyer could be selected before the emergency budget on June 22, whichis expected to put up capital gains tax on certain types of investment. Arise in the tax rate could cost Bracewell-Smith millions of pounds.
Foreign ownership of football clubs is under increased scrutiny becauseof the large debts many clubs have been saddled with after takeovers byforeign investors.
Some proprietors, such as Chelsea’s Russian tycoon Roman Abramovich,have slashed debts recently while others — Aston Villa’s American ownerRandy Lerner, for example — have striven to avoid becoming dependent onbank financing.
The sale of a stake in Arsenal, which is forecast to make a pre-taxprofit this year of £56m, will not be helped by growing speculation thatCesc Fabregas, its star midfielder, could move to Barcelona thissummer.
Both Arsenal and Blackstone declined to comment...
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