ITV’s Arsenal shares interest Qatar and Stan Kroenke .
Three weeks ago Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson reported in the Financial Times that ITVs executive chairman Michael Grade, appointed in late in 2006, wants to cash in some of his portfolio to provide cash for core activities. Having already sold their £17.4m stake in Liverpool FC, the company has held talks on selling their 9.9% holding in Arsenal FC.
Then ArabianBusiness.com reported on March 11 that Sheikh Hamad, a member of the Qatar royal family, and Chairman of the Qatar Investment Company, was keen to buy the ITV shares.
Two weeks later, in the Sunday Times of March 25, Matthew Goodman said that American sports tycoon Stan Kroenke, who already has a marketing partnership with Arsenal, is in talks with ITV about buying their stake.
ITV are believed to want about £8,000 a share and expect any buyer to pay a premium for a strategic stake.They own 6,160 shares,which is 9.9% of 62,219, the total shares in Arsenal. ITV want 6,160 x 8,116 = £49,994,560.00 for their stake.
So Arsenal’s market capitalisation is currently 62,219 x 6,500 or £404,423.50. If someone made a bid based on ITV’s share valuation, that would price Arsenal at £504,969.40. Any buyer knows that the club expect to make over £100 million profit from the sale of the flats at Highbury Square, although their total debt is £270.3 million.
The board of directors control 60.6% of Arsenal, which is 37,705 shares.
The three heavyweights are Danny Fiszman , who controls 24.11%, which is 15,000 shares, David Dein, who controls 9,072 shares or 14.5%, and Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith, who controls 9,893 shares or 15.9%.
Peter Hill-Wood has 348 shares, Ken Friar 199 and Keith Edelman 25 .
Without more hard information, it’s hard to read between the lines. But, assuming that the Emirates, Arsenal’s main sponsors, would not welcome a bid by their local rivals in Qatar, did Fiszman say to Stan Kroenke, “Look, why don’t you buy ITV’s 9.9 %? They want to sell, why not talk to them?”
We cannot know the intentions of Kroenke or Qatar. But we can be sure of one thing : ITV intend to get as much money for those shares as possible
Arsenal’s share price went up £900 last week. Can it shoot up to £7,000 a share this week?