Kroenke in advanced talks to take over Arsenal

[Goose]

You guys really think Silent Stan will spend around £900m of his own cash to buy us out and clear the remaining debt? As pointed out already he's not worth much more than that. No chance it will happen without leverage debt. And you forget he'll take out as much as he likes per annum to pay himself back - as much or more than our current repayments. Yeah, wooo.

I hope the fat Uzbek sits on his shares

Heres a story on the reliable blog I read, they said earlier on Twitter that David Dein is on his way back

http://thegoonblog.com/

He's a pretentious prick and not reliable. He flat out makes things up and passes on widespread rumours as "inside info"

It wont cost £900 million to buy the club out, he owns 30% already and is spending £224 million CASH to buy another 32%, as he is over 50% he now has CONTROL of the club, Usmanov wont sell up, but if he did and Kroenke took full control, it would only cost him another £260 million to do so.

All the major media BBC, Telegraph, Times etc are all saying its a CASH purchase.

The club is worth about £700 million in share value, of which Kroenke owns 62% paid in CASH, leaving about £266 million worth of shares available, of which Usmanov owns about £189 millions worth.

The remaining £200 million from the £900 million, is the clubs debts, by law you have to clear the debts prior to a full 100% takeover, but as you said, Usmanov will sit on his shares so that wont happen.

I dont see how Kroenke will be leveraging any debt on the club, also Kroenke is worth £2 billion and his wife is worth £2 billion, I am sure a few hundred million cash is well within his reach

Apparently, the reason for the sale is that Fiszmans health has deteriorated and he wanted a quick sale of his shares, so the money goes to a fund as his family do not want to inherit the shareholding.

[CynicalGooner]

But assume Usmanov decides the game is up and sells whilst share prices are at a premium, and suppose also that Kroenke wants to fully own the club (logic says he would if and when the opportunity arrives), that would more or less bring the total expenditure to £900m including the existing debt which as you say he has to wipe. Forbes says he is worth just under £1.6b, but that includes all the existing american sport franchises he owns as well as his property empire. To finance a full takeover he would have to either sell at least 1 of his current teams or leverage debt on Arsenal. He simply does not have the CASH. Unless his wife is gonna buy us for him?

[Fabrestuta]

You guys really think Silent Stan will spend around £900m of his own cash to buy us out and clear the remaining debt? As pointed out already he's not worth much more than that. No chance it will happen without leverage debt. And you forget he'll take out as much as he likes per annum to pay himself back - as much or more than our current repayments. Yeah, wooo.

I hope the fat Uzbek sits on his shares

Heres a story on the reliable blog I read, they said earlier on Twitter that David Dein is on his way back

http://thegoonblog.com/

He's a pretentious prick and not reliable. He flat out makes things up and passes on widespread rumours as "inside info"

Don't think anything of the sort Cyn, nor would I be happy if we started throwing money around, and a 3rd nuh uh is I don't want any single person in charge, but Kroenke is the lesser of 2 evils. People seem to have forgotten that Usmanov is a rapist and has spent in in prison.
Granted he and RvP will have a connection when they swap rape stories, but thats no reason to have him as an owner.

[Leody]

If I were him, I wouldn't talk to the media either.

Most of you are going to hate him no matter what he says.

[Goose]

But assume Usmanov decides the game is up and sells whilst share prices are at a premium, and suppose also that Kroenke wants to fully own the club (logic says he would if and when the opportunity arrives), that would more or less bring the total expenditure to £900m including the existing debt which as you say he has to wipe. Forbes says he is worth just under £1.6b, but that includes all the existing american sport franchises he owns as well as his property empire. To finance a full takeover he would have to either sell at least 1 of his current teams or leverage debt on Arsenal. He simply does not have the CASH. Unless his wife is gonna buy us for him?

TBH, I think he has already spoken with Usmanov and that this purchase was planned, Usmanov has probably said he won't sell

Kroenke is also buying the shares at a discount apparently, as Fizsman wants to rush through a sale

Kroenke is buying up the shares at £11,500 each and Usmanov payed over £14,000 each for his shares, so Usmanov isn't going to lose £80 million or so to help Kroenke

[Goose]

Worth a read

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/foot ... 66205.html

[Goose]

More

http://www.goonsofanarchy.com/kroenke-faqs/

[CynicalGooner]

Don't think anything of the sort Cyn, nor would I be happy if we started throwing money around, and a 3rd nuh uh is I don't want any single person in charge, but Kroenke is the lesser of 2 evils. People seem to have forgotten that Usmanov is a rapist and has spent in in prison.
Granted he and RvP will have a connection when they swap rape stories, but thats no reason to have him as an owner.

I don't want Usmanov either, in fact I'd oppose a takeover from him even more strongly. But if he sits on his own shares and won't budge then neither can have full control, though Kroenke would still have effective control with 62%. They can stage a boardroom cold war for all I care as long as neither owns us outright.

Kroenke still hasn't fully paid for the shares he 'purchased' from Fiszman because "he doesn't have that kind of money lying around", but you expect him to find enough for what he already owes and much more. Sorry guys, just doesn't add up for me, I can't see how anyone can be even cautiously optimistic about this. I'll cool it if someone can explain to me how this can happen without hurting AFC but nothing I've heard so far is doing it.

Btw that Swiss Ramble piece is good but all of the character references are from friends or employees of his, they are hardly gonna throw mud at him are they?

[Fabrestuta]

Don't think anything of the sort Cyn, nor would I be happy if we started throwing money around, and a 3rd nuh uh is I don't want any single person in charge, but Kroenke is the lesser of 2 evils. People seem to have forgotten that Usmanov is a rapist and has spent in in prison.
Granted he and RvP will have a connection when they swap rape stories, but thats no reason to have him as an owner.

I don't want Usmanov either, in fact I'd oppose a takeover from him even more strongly. But if he sits on his own shares and won't budge then neither can have full control, though Kroenke would still have effective control with 62%. They can stage a boardroom cold war for all I care as long as neither owns us outright.

Kroenke still hasn't fully paid for the shares he 'purchased' from Fiszman because "he doesn't have that kind of money lying around", but you expect him to find enough for what he already owes and much more. Sorry guys, just doesn't add up for me, I can't see how anyone can be even cautiously optimistic about this. I'll cool it if someone can explain to me how this can happen without hurting AFC but nothing I've heard so far is doing it.

Btw that Swiss Ramble piece is good but all of the character references are from friends or employees of his, they are hardly gonna throw mud at him are they?

I don't disagree with any of your misgivings, but all big business deals are shady. That is in NO way giving him a green light, but compared to Usmanov he is a saint.

[golfinguy]

Kroenke = no change in how we operate (but is that more Wenger than board anyway?) So anyone unhappy with how Arsenal is ran now will not be in favor of this. Kroenke fields perpetually competitive teams - he knows that is what it takes to be successful as a club. He likes to win championships as well, but will not chase them with excessive spending. Sounds like Arsenal to me, and he doesn't even have ownership yet.

Grousing about debt or falling dollars - is simply reading the wrong (biased) source material IMO. Sky = not falling.

Those that want big money changes - well, don't we mock teams that operate like that a bit (Chelski, Shieky)? Seems like a strange request to abandon ideals for silverware. Usmonov is shady, but would not be the end of the world either. Just not sure I want to be a team ran as a rich man's train set.

I've always said I prefer things remain as is, but Kroenke is probably the better long term option if it comes to that.

Do you want to owe the banks (ManU), the owner (Chelski), or run self-sustaining (The Arsenal)? I still believe silverware can come with the third option.

[Leody]

FYI, the value of the dollar will have little impact on anybody with a sound business understanding. And will have almost no impact on Arsenal FC if Kroenke owns it.

Kroenke doesn't have $1b in cash just sitting in a bank account somewhere, nobody with that kind of money does, or is that stupid. They will have assets that are worth that much. Precious metals, stocks, bonds, property and so on and so on... So the value of the dollar drops, and the amount of dollars it takes to buy their assets goes up. It's called diversification. And that's why people like Kroenke are more secure than people like Usmanov, because Usmanov's money comes from oil and his wealth is highly dependent on the price of oil.

[natalie]

I rather have Stan then Usmonov

[JackMan86]

Does it make a difference?

Wenger wont spend any money the Yank gives him

Yes he will, he'll buy himself a big new shiny sleeping bag coat!

[Arsenal Tone]

I was concerned last night, now i'm excited. A takeover has been hanging over our club for years and uncertainty is never good. I'm also hoping that dein comes back - he is an arsenal man and knows his stuff when it comes to running a football club - he might also be a good support for our manager.

[Goose]

It's on arse.com

An interview with Stan will appear on the site shortly, I told you he would speak after the takeover

The statement also says the club will be bought cash without any debt

http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archiv ... l-holdings