Updated Evertonians Andy Bell and George Downing are among the leading contenders to buy Everton amid reports that a new group of investors have entered exclusive negotiations with Farhad Moshiri.
The pair are already creditors of the Club through MSP Sports Capital, the investment outfit who loaned the Blues £158m last summer after being denied the chance to take a 25% equity stake, but it appears as though their latest bid does not involve the New York-based firm.
Instead, following a similar claim by the FT, Paul Joyce of The Times reports that MSD Partners, the investment vehicle of tech billionaire Michael Dell, the founder of Dell Technologies and the 10th richest man in the world with a personal wealth in the region of £120bn, will help support Bell and Downing in their efforts to buy the club under the umbrella of a new entity called Toffee Ventures.
MSP are said by Sky Sports to be one of five different entities vying for control of Everton but Matt Slater of The Athletic suggests that the pair of Evertonians “have been trying to pull a deal together with the support of British financial services group Zeus Capital and US private equity firm, BDT & MSD Partners,” separately from the investment firm helmed by Jahm Najafi and Jeff Moorad.
Joyce posited last night that there are also two offers from existing Club creditors, with A-Cap, a major lender to 777 Partners, whose nine-month bid to buy Moshiri’s 94.1% stake finally collapsed last week, said to have made a bid to come on board with a minority stake and restructure the Club’s debt.
Based on the latest report in The Times, however, it appears at this point as though only Toffee Ventures and MSP Sports Capital are in the running, with the latter also being talked about in terms of taking a significant stake in Tottenham Hotspur – although there is talk of one more, as yet un-named, global group of investors in advanced discussions with Moshiri.
One interested party who no longer appears likely to lead a takeover is John Textor who spoke recently of his desire to sell his 45% interest in Crystal Palace and buy Everton instead.
However, as Slater suggests, the American’s proposal to put his shareholding in the Eagles into a blind trust while his advisors sought interested suitors so that he could push ahead with plans to bid for the Toffees has been ruled out.
It is not clear which option the Blues’ majority shareholder favours but he claims that an announcement over which group has entered a period of exclusivity is imminent.