A few short weeks ago, it appeared, based on the most dire prognostications, as though Everton’s future boiled down to 777 Partners and whether or not they could find around £220m to satisfy the Premier League’s requirements for approval of their long-running takeover bid. The alternative to the Florida-based private equity firm? The Club limping along through the summer, keeping the wolves from the door with the agonising sale of some important and valued players, or a slow grind towards potential Administration and all the pain and catastrophe that would entail.
Of course, the potential for other investors to come to the table once Farhad Moshiri belatedly allowed the Share Purchase Agreement with 777 to expire was always there but the more the debt piled up the interim — seemingly using A-Cap as the source of their funds, Josh Wander and Co fronted the Blues around £200m to keep the Club operational and construction at Bramley-Moore Dock on schedule — less attractive a proposition Everton became.
This is the Premier League, though, and Everton is a club with massive potential. All it needs, at the bare minimum, is someone — or some group — to come in with enough resources to send Moshiri on his way with something by way of consolation for the staggering sums he has ploughed into his ultimately failed endeavour, restructure the debt, and provide funds to keep the lights on while things get back on an even keel.
In the last couple of weeks, six different entities have emerged by way of media reports as being potential suitors for the Club. One of them, John Textor, is believed to have dropped out due to the complexities of his situation at Crystal Palace — he has been trying to offload his 45% stake in the Eagles for the past year — while others are less credible as potential owners.
While some have considerably deeper pockets than others, the amount of capital they are prepared to sink into Everton in the short to medium term is roughly in the same “ballpark”, to use an American term in line with the amount of interest from the other side of the Atlantic.
In any case, the size of each investor’s personal wealth is largely irrelevant once you get past a certain Sterling or Dollar amount because, as we, Newcastle and now Aston Villa know all too well, there is only so much you can spend if you’re not already sitting in the hayloft of the domestic game like the so-called “Big 6” having pulled the ladder up behind you.
So who, then, are the various figures and groups reported to have registered serious interest in purchasing Moshiri’s 94.1% stake and what is the likelihood that they will succeed in completing a takeover in the coming months?
MSP Sports Capital
The “OGs” in terms of serious investors once Moshiri began the search for funds in late 2022 to either complete the stadium or enable him to parachute out of the stalling plane he had been piloting, MSP are helmed by Jahm Najafi and Jeff Moorad.
Iran-born Najafi is part-owner of the Phoenix Suns basketball team, a stake now worth an estimated $400m and, according to Forbes, his personal wealth currently stands at $1.3bn.
Moorad, who made his name as a renowned sports agent, served as CEO of both the Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres baseball teams, before eventually forming MSP with Najafi, Arne Rees, and Steve Wasserman five years ago.
Since then, the group has acquired, either wholly or in partnership, Estoril in Portugal and Alcorcon in Spain, and taken minority positions in Augsburg in Germany and Beveren in Belgium as their first foray into multi-club ownership in football. MSP also have a stake in McLaren Racing and are the majority shareholder of the X Games.
They put together a 13-person consortium of investors to offer between £100m and £125m for a 25% stake in the Blues a year ago, a bid that was eventually blocked by Rights & Media Funding, Everton’s most senior and largest creditor at £225m, who blocked it on the basis that the valuation the offer placed on the Club was too low and because MSP were not keen on putting further funds in for the foreseeable future.
Two of those investors were Merseyside businessman, Andy Bell and George Downing, one was Moshiri himself and together with the other 10 businessmen, they opted to follow through with a £158m loan last August, a debt that would come due for whoever ultimately bought the club.
As already established, that would have been 777 Partners, who were also required by the Premier League to put £60m into escrow before their purchase of the Club could be sanctioned. A deadline of 15 April was set for the initial MSP loan to be repaid by 777 which, had they missed it, would have handed the New York-based investment firm a 50% plus 1 share controlling stake in Everton.
Instead, with MSP apparently reluctant to take on Everton’s debt at that time, Moshiri extended the deadline for a month and then gave 777 until 31 May as a final date on which to come up with the money or bow out. By that stage, Wander and his 777 co-founder Steve Pasko had resigned their positions and, embroiled in a $600m fraud case in a New York district court, the firm was forced to call in restructuring and insolvency experts as things began to unravel in Miami.
It appears, based on reporting by Sky Sports and others, that MSP Sports Capital, this time without Bell and Downing, are still interested in owning the Club, perhaps now that the stadium is that much closer to completion and Everton’s status as a top-flight club has been assured.
The American group are known to be sharp and savvy operators and continue to be linked with a move to take a significant stake in Tottenham Hotspur so appear to be keen on getting involved in elite English football. But, having been reluctant to push the boat out last year when it came to Everton, doubts remain over how much funding they would be willing to provide this time.
A-CAP
Full name Advantage Capital LLC, A-Cap appear to have assumed the assets and liabilities of 777 Partners. If, as increasingly looks to be the case, it was their money that funded 777’s “trolley dash” over the past few years acquiring football clubs on three continents and helped the construction of Everton Stadium to the tune of £200m, a takeover of the Blues would appear to be the surest way they can recoup that outlay.
The insurance company, once said to have $12bn in assets, say that they, unlike 777, are secured creditors of the Club but Evertonian finance expert Paul Quinn argues that at present A-Cap’s hands are currently tied by the fact that they are in “supervisory administration” in the US.
That would preclude them from making any further investment in Everton or any of 777’s other clubs which makes them unlikely suitors. In any case, their reported offer was dependent on Moshiri continuing as majority shareholder and simply involved the recapitalisation of the Club’s debt rather than providing any long-term plan.
Dan Friedkin
One of the names that came out of the blue this week was that of American billionaire, Dan Friedkin. Born in San Diego, Friedkin assumed control of Gulf States Toyota, which distributes the Japanese automobile manufacturer’s cars in the United States, from his father and he has since branched out into luxury resorts, film production and conservation.
He is estimated to be worth around $6bn and bought AS Roma from James Pallotta for $700m five years ago while also acquiring fourth-tier French club AS Cannes.
However, while talks are said to be ongoing and well-placed reports in England suggest he has submitted a bid to buy Everton, the indications from Italy are that Friedkin is only interested in taking a 45% stake.
That would place him in the category of a joint-investor with some other group or require Moshiri remaining in place as majority shareholder for the time being.
Andy Bell and George Downing
While 777 Partners’ bid to own Everton has been collapsing, two lifelong Blues have been working diligently on alternative solutions that would steer the Club away from financial calamity.
Having initially helped put together the group of investors who loaned the Blues £158m last year under the MSP Sports Capital umbrella, Andy Bell and George Downing have now put together a rival bid to buy Moshiri out.
Bell, 58, made his fortune in investing and stock brokerage before stepping down from AJ Bell two years ago, while Downing, 61, is a construction and property management magnate.
Worth a reported £100m between them, they would not have the wherewithal to offer Moshiri what he is looking for and then be able to take on Everton’s enormous debts but their bid for the Club is backed by the family office of the world’s 10th-richest man, Michael Dell, who is worth in the region of £100bn.
While neither Dell nor his “family office” appear interested in owning the Toffees outright, preferring instead to continue to make small-scale investments in a number of English clubs, his merchant bank, BDT & MSD Partners, are reportedly supporting Bell’s and Downing’s bid of fresh equity and a £350m loan secured against the new Everton Stadium that would enable them to restructure the Club’s debt.
Their offer was said to be the most attractive to Moshiri and was reputedly very close to gaining an exclusivity agreement until late on Friday evening when one more entity entered the race.
Vatche Manoukian consortium
Rumbling in the background of the various reports on 777 Partners’ doomed takeover bid, and then the efforts by Bell and Downing to put together a viable alternative, have been rumours of serious interest from one more entity that had remained in the shadows until a late-breaking story by Matt Slater of The Athletic on Friday evening.
A group of international investors led by London-based businessman and lawyer Vatche Manoukian, 45, are now in negotiations with Moshiri having submitted an all-equity bid in the region of £400m that meets the Anglo-Iranian’s valuation.
The consortium includes Middle Eastern royalty and high-net-worth families in the United States while tech investment firm IMS Digital Ventures, where Manoukian is a partner, is backed by the $1.5bn in assets of the Australian Myer family.
Manoukian’s group of Millennial-age investors and entrepreneurs are new to football investment but maintain that they are committed to reducing Everton’s debt burden and instituting a sustainable long-term strategy along the lines originally envisaged by Moshiri but which he was unable to make successful.
They have made mention of the enormous “sleeping giant” potential they see in Everton FC, its supporting community on Merseyside, vibrant fanbase and, of course, the new stadium that is scheduled for completion by the end of this year.
Importantly, the formal bid from Manoukian’s consortium that was submitted to Moshiri on Saturday was well received by the Toffees’ owner and stands as an attractive and viable alternative to the one put forward by Bell and Downing.
According to Richard Jolly in The Independent, Manoukian is an Everton fan and is “ready to move quickly” if his bid is accepted.