On the flip slide, Ive spoken to one member of the board a few weeks back when this last came up who said they’d had had nothing more than unsolicited offers, no discussions had taken place and none of the current board were interested in selling and put it down as rumour. Khaled said the same in the Chron. Given the consolidation of the shareholding in the last couple of weeks and discussions about improving the match-day experience you’d have thought that still stands. Obviously people can change their mind, particularly given the financial commitment required to keep the club afloat but I do wonder if some of this comes from the Chien Lee/Paul Conway side of the ownership?
Don't forget he took them into the championship, twice. Their net spend during his tenure was just £9m a year, which is a pittance compared to other clubs their size. Yet he was benefitting from free advertising by slapping sports direct logos everywhere, not to mention the hundreds of millions in TV revenue they were receiving each year. Honestly, Ashley was pillaging Newcastle, not bankrolling them.
I heard from a source close to the club its a local firm who have had a lot of media attention this past year..
I think the bigger question would be why any ‘investor’ would want to pay a purchase price for the club? Currently running at a loss of circa £5m pa, asset value of next to zero and no great talent on the books. When Conway and his merry bunch bought in they paid £7m for an 80% share in a championship club with £5m on the balance sheet ( deferred payments covering a proportion of the cash) which was broadly running at a small loss. In my view they got a roll of the dice for minimal outlay. After getting on for five years of their ownership I would imagine that any valuation would be close to zero. Couple that with the soft debt to the Cryne family and any remaining EFL loan BFC is not an attractive investment on any positive valuation.
I am not sure that many clubs are an attractive investment but there are always people with pots of money that like a hobby & to some who are football daft might just want to live the dream & take on a club , I am not saying they are queuing up but to some the challenge of taking a club to dreamland might just float their boat , whether a third division club with a running debt appeals to any of these then who knows but we have potential & we have reached the big time before so never say never someone one day might just see us as a play thing !
I’m sure someone out there would fancy a go, the point I was making was that the purchase price, in any world of finance, is zero. The real issue is funding multiple years of losses at a provincial unfashionable club with minimal brand value and no property to sell off.
In all honesty I can't see a takeover happening until one party own the club and the ground. If it were me I'd want the whole kit and caboodle to do as I saw fit. If I want to build a massage parlour and casino then so be it.
