Observer: Asian billionaire in Spurs takeover talks

[cnyy12]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/sep/28/tottenhamhotspur.premierleague

A 'super-rich' investor from south-east Asia is involved in talks that could make Tottenham the latest member of the Premier League's billionaires club. The news comes from Singapore, where the super-agent Pini Zahavi and the wealthy Asian have been discussing a possible deal. Zahavi, who flew to Asia last week, brokered the deal by which Roman Abramovich took over Chelsea in 2003.
'The discussions are at a preliminary stage,' a source in Singapore told The Observer last night, 'but the investor is a billionaire and views Spurs as perfect because of the profile of the club and the fact that they are in London. This last point is very important.'
Zahavi, who could not be reached for comment last night, has not been instructed by the club, but has had many dealings with them - including the sale of Jermain Defoe to Portsmouth earlier this year - and is convinced Tottenham would agree to a sale should his talks prove fruitful.
Joe Lewis's Enic investment group has been the majority owner of Tottenham since 2001. There has been talk of a sale recently, and a buyer would expect to pay £300m-£400m for the club.
Asked if Spurs are actively seeking a seller, a spokesperson said last night: 'No. But as a plc if any bid is submitted then it had to be put to our shareholders.' Lewis, 61, who lost £400m after the collapse of American investment bank Bear Stearns, owns more than 80 per cent of the shares.
The structure of the club and poor off-field management have been blamed for the poor form that has left them bottom of the Premier League. Juande Ramos, who managed Spurs to victory in the Carling Cup last season, takes his team to Portsmouth this afternoon in search of their first league win of the season.
Chairman Daniel Levy, who answers to Lewis, has been criticised along with the club's technical director, Damien Comolli, for a transfer policy that has appeared at times to be driven by profit rather than a determination to add quality players to the squad.

 

[L.A. Yiddo]

The investor has been outted!

 

[jamesc0le]

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

 

[Defsta]

Propably those Dubai investors again, they just want to send one message "Fuck Abu Dhabi, if you have 2 Oil fields somewhere in the desert it doesn't make you an important person"

 

[General Levy]

where's the pray smiley?











































































found it. ray:ray:

 

[yido4life]

Anybody read the last paragraph on the link, how crapis it, thet think we r the barcodes!!?

Terrible journalism

 

[nidge]

More shocking journalism made worse by the fact that the original poster failed to copy it.

A quick takeover could result in the bizarre spectacle of the new caretaker manager Joe Kinnear leaving the club before taking proper charge of a first-team match. Kinnear, who will be paid £100,000 a month plus £20,000 for each win and £10,000 for each draw, is currently serving a two-match touchline ban incurred during his last job, at Nottingham Forest in 2004. It means his first game in the dugout is scheduled to be against Manchester City on 20 October - almost a month after he was given the job.

It sounds like they don't know what club they are talking about in that article.

 

[Midostouch]

In the Observer there are two articles in the top section - the section quoted at the top of this post, then a break and clearly a new article, starting " Newcastle United should..." and then going on to talk about Kinnear etc.

 

[DC_Boy]

obviously this story is very speculative - but for me the only realisitic way for us to break the big four is via a billionaire benefactor

It will take a lot of money to buy us - so someone will have to be really keen with deep deep pockets both to buy and then mega invest - it's a tough ask, here's hoping there is someone out there up to it

 

[northampton_yid]

Hurry up and bring it on i say. The sooner we get some serious investment and stop having to cash in on our top players the better.

 

[yanno]

For clarity's sake, I have a physical copy of the Observer, and there are two articles, the lead one about the Spurs "Asian Billionaire" takeover, and then what is clearly a separate piece about the barcodes. So, in short, this is genuine journalism, albeit relying on leaks from off-the-record sources.

I suspect this takeover offer is at least semi-serious. "Super-agent" Pini Zahavi's involvement is very suggestive. Not only was he involved in helping to broker Abramovich's acquisition of Chavski, but he was the main agent responsible for Gio Dos Santos ending up at Spurs this summer.

Joe "The Boxer" Lewis lost c£400 million when Bear Stearns went down. Given the near destruction of liquidity in financial markets, anybody with a multi-million pound asset (eg the owners of Spurs plc) who can find a buyer with cold hard cash, will seriously consider the offer.

Major western economies are almost certainly looking at a crash of c20-30% in the value of many major assets (from commercial and residential property to companies themselves), so selling now is still selling near the top of the market.

If the "Asian billionaire" has cold, hard, cash, and meets our valuation, I would expect ENIC to sell.

If the "Asian billionaire" is like manure's Glazers, and the takeover offer is based on massive debt (the Glazers hand over virtually all of manure's annual profits in interest payments on their debt), then I will be furious if ENIC sell, because they will be sabotaging our famous club and throwing it to the wolves.

 

[Bonjour]

I really don't get why people are so keen on this.

We have been owned by a billionaire since 2001. Who's to say that our new owners would be any more wealthy? As West Ham and Newcastle have shown, bringing in the billionaire owner is not necessarily the solution to all problems.

Whomever is buying, it's fairly certain that they wont be as rich or frivolous with their dough as both Abramovic and Dr Sulaiman Al-Fahim have been.

In light of the current state of the financial markets, I'm pretty sure this will happen (if not to this Singaporean firm, then to another fairly soon) but by no means do I think it is good news.

 

[robin09]

Not interested in a faceless overseas investor who has no idea about the Club. The grass isn't always greener.

 

[BOLT]

Anybody read the last paragraph on the link, how crapis it, thet think we r the barcodes!!?

Terrible journalism

Terrible dyslexia...

 

[johnmc]

As they say be careful what you wish for. We are in Levy's/ Lewis's hands lets hope he does the decent thing and makes doubly sure these investors, if they are really there, are going to be good for Spurs. More worrying times ahead for us I fear.

 

[Bobishism]

I think anyone considering investment now is looking to sell on the club in a few years at massive profit.

 

[TwoSaintsComeMarching]

Right.. i hope this is true. Why? I think this so called "Asian Investor" might just be Anil Ambani. Im Indian and i can tell you first hand this guy is a genious and is a very very very good business man, and he has a reputation as an honest and humble individual. Whats that got to do with football? Not much, except ill know that our club will be in safe hands. Hes been linked with takeover moves for Everton and Newcastle recently aswell.

 

[Bonjour]

Right.. i hope this is true. Why? I think this so called "Asian Investor" might just be Anil Ambani. Im Indian and i can tell you first hand this guy is a genious and is a very very very good business man, and he has a reputation as an honest and humble individual. Whats that got to do with football? Not much, except ill know that our club will be in safe hands. Hes been linked with takeover moves for Everton and Newcastle recently aswell.

Apparently it's a Singaporean, rather than Indian.

edit: although I guess there's no reason Anil couldn't be meeting with Zahavi in Singapore. The club could certainly do a lot worse than Anil, that's for sure.

 

[Montasura]

Right.. i hope this is true. Why? I think this so called "Asian Investor" might just be Anil Ambani. Im Indian and i can tell you first hand this guy is a genious and is a very very very good business man, and he has a reputation as an honest and humble individual. Whats that got to do with football? Not much, except ill know that our club will be in safe hands. Hes been linked with takeover moves for Everton and Newcastle recently aswell.

How can our club ever possibly be in "Safe Hands" when it is owned by a "very very very good business man"?

These two just do not go hand in hand. Very good business men generally by companies for very good business reasons, the main one being to make a profit. He will not by it for his love of football or our club. It will be a business opportunity with the ultimate intention of turning a decent profit. When that has been achieved or failed then he is gone, possibly leaving a stranded club.

No doubt the money will be great and it may well be fun for a while. In the long run, however, it could prove to be totally disastrous for us, any other billionaire owned club, and football in general.

 

[godemand]

I've been a member of this board for a long time and visit it almost every day, but I rarely ever post. I know this is a rubbish article, but the subject just makes me sad and I feel that I have to write something :sad:

I know many of us feel that the only way to break into the top four is to sell the club to a billionaire that can flood the club with money, like what has just happened with City. Personally, I really hope that it doesn't come to this.

We have a well-run club, and one that is financially sound.
We are a PLC, which mean that the club and the people who run it must answer to the shareholders and not just one supreme and perhaps impatient owner.

Chelsea are not a real club in my mind, it's the fantasy team of a Russian oligarch - but for what it's worth, they were actually competing for honours before Abrahmovic bought the club (and possibly saved them from going bankrupt...)

Liverpool, well it's a joke really. "Rich" American owners, who has dumped their debt on the club, really not the way forward.

Man Utd are competing, but the foundations were there when the Glaziers bought the club. United have become a "one expensive buy a season" team and are depending on being successful both domestically and in Europe.

Man City, well, as a club they have not been competing for honours for quite some time, the last time they won a major trophy was in 1976... Now, first with Dr. Shinawatra, then the Sheikh from UAE, the owners are flooding the club with money and bringing in mercenaries, in an attempt to buy glory. Personally, I think it is disgusting and I really hope we don't end up like City.:evil:

You can say whatever you want about Arsenal, and hate them as much as you want, but they have shown that they can compete without having a rich owner spending ridiculous amounts of money on high profile players (Robinho etc.), and they qualify for CL every year - which has been the aim for us the last couple of seasons.

I firmly believe that we can become a top team without a change of ownership. We need stability and patience, and there is no doubt that Enic have been good owners and Levy a good chairman for us. I know someone will scream Berbatov and Keane, but we did not want to sell, they wanted to go. They might even have done so if we had a filthy, rich owner money who threw money in all directions.

Let's build and earn respect, and not try to buy our way to the top.

We do not need new owners; we need an improved stadium, whether that is at a new site or a re-developed White Hart Lane. It is vital for our future. Get that in place, keep our current owners and let's get behind the team in a difficult time for the club.

If and only if Enic does sell the club, I can only hope we get an responsible new owner. The only foreign owner that seems to be a reasonable guy is Aston Villa's Randy Lernier. He has given his manager funds and at the same time given him time to build and shape his squad, without too much interference. I'm afraid that's not what we can expect if we are subject of a takeover.