Stan Kroenke set for Arsenal takeover deal

[Karl]

Stan Kroenke set for Arsenal takeover deal


By David Bond
BBC sports editor




Kroenke began acquiring Arsenal shares in 2007


Stan Kroenke is poised to launch a full takeover of Arsenal after agreeing deals to buy shares owned by Danny Fiszman and Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith. American businessman Kroenke already owns 29.9% of the north London club.

BBC Sport understands that he is to acquire the 16.1% owned by Fiszman and Lady Bracewell-Smith's 15.9% stake for about £11,000 a share, or £225m.

That will give Kroenke 62% plus control of the club and means he must offer to buy out all the remaining shareholders.

At that price, Arsenal have a market value in the region of £750m. With them carrying debts of £147m, the deals value the club at £900m.

The Gunners are the only one of the Premier League's top four teams not currently under outright foreign ownership.

Kroenke, 63, is also the owner of Kroenke Sports Enterprises in the United States.

The company controls the NBA's Denver Nuggets, the NHL's Colorado Avalanche, NFL team the St Louis Rams, and Major League Soccer outfit the Colorado Rapids.

The man with the second largest Arsenal shareholding is Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, with just over 27%.

Unlike Kroenke, however, he does not have a seat on the board at the Emirates Stadium.

Usmanov has previously called for Arsenal to invest heavily on the pitch to end their six-year trophy drought.

However, the club's board of directors have steered a more cautious financial path.

They have focused on using the additional income generated by the 60,300-capacity Emirates, which opened in July 2006, to lower Arsenal's debts.

Some supporters have complained this has limited the funds available to manager Arsene Wenger to make top-quality signings.

But the Frenchman has long preferred to buy younger, cheaper players whom he can mould for his style of play.

His team are second in the Premier League, seven points behind leaders Manchester United. Arsenal's last won the title in 2004.

Gunners fans have become frustrated by the team's lack of silverware in recent seasons, and the Arsenal Supporters Trust extended a cautious welcome to news of Kroenke's takeover move.

"Stan Kroenke has a good relationship with the AST and recently supported our Fanshare scheme," it said in a statement.

"We are hopeful of having discussions with him on how our members and Arsenal supporters can keep their shares in Arsenal FC."

The Fanshare initiative was launched by the AST in August 2010 to enable fans to buy small fractions of full shares at an affordable price.

[Karl]

What does Kroenke's purchase mean for Arsenal?

What does Kroenke's purchase mean for Arsenal?

David Bond | 09:31 UK time, Monday, 11 April 2011



Shortly after Stan Kroenke started buying shares in Arsenal, the club's Old Etonian chairman Peter Hill-Wood famously remarked that he didn't want the American's "sort" involved in the north London outfit.

At a time when the rest of the Premier League's big four was falling into the hands of wealthy foreign backers, Hill-Wood and Arsenal took pride in being different.

Not any more. On Monday, the last domino fell. Arsenal, the Bank of England club, are now another franchise in an American sports tycoon's portfolio.

So will this make any real difference?



Kroenke purchased his first Arsenal shares in 2007. Photo: Getty


For some time now, there has been a sense that Stan Kroenke was Arsenal's future. He first bought shares in the club back in 2007, acquiring just under 10%, and spent around £200m to become the club's biggest shareholder before Monday's announcement.

In the process, he has seen off the challenge of a rival foreign investor, the Russian-based businessman Alisher Usmanov, who still holds a 27% stake in the Gunners.

With great uncertainty over the health of long-term director and shareholder Danny Fiszman and the commitment of Lady Nina Bracewell Smith, it was always a question of when not if Kroenke made his move for full control.

So, in splashing out a further £225m and launching a full mandatory takeover, Kroenke has ended one of the longest running takeover sagas in English football. The deal values the club's shares at around £730m, which, when added to the club's debt, gives you a total price of just under £900m.

To put that into perspective, that is only £100m more than what it cost the Glazer family to buy Manchester United back in 2005 and will put a slightly different perspective on their current valuation of the club, thought to be around £1.5bn.

Not known as "silent" Stan for nothing, Kroenke's public pronouncements are so rare that it is difficult to be sure of his long-term intentions for the club. It is also unknown whether he has used or will use debt financing to assume full control.

One can only judge him by his actions so far - and he has chosen to leave manager Arsene Wenger and the highly regarded British chief executive Ivan Gazidis to get on with running the club.

Supporters will, of course, want to know whether the takeover by a billionaire will mark a change in Wenger's prudent transfer policy and, ultimately, fortunes on the pitch.

Without a trophy since 2005, Wenger's team could still win the Premier League this season, although that is looking increasingly unlikely despite the victory against Blackpool on Sunday.

With the debt burden from the move to the Emirates Stadium now reduced to £147m from £350m and the club making healthy profits thanks to the ground's larger capacity, Wenger has had money to spend for some time now.

With Uefa's new financial fair play regulations coming down the track, the north London side are considered Michel Platini's model club.
The fact is that Wenger chooses not to spend the money he has at his disposal, preferring to develop young talent than to follow the spend or bust approach of Chelsea and Manchester City.

But will Kroenke's deeper pockets now lead to a rethink, especially if Arsenal end the season potless again?

[Paul Marin]

From what I understand, his record shows that he doesn't interfere with the running of his teams. My guess is that he values Wenger's approach of developing players rather than buying them and sees a rare but wonderful thing in the form of a profitable football club. Platini considers Arsenal his "model club" in his financial fair play efforts. I personally think the Arsenal model is the right approach as player development is their primary focus. It allows them to be profitable and still grow. Any trophy that comes their way was earned, not bought. Good luck Gummers.