Kroenke closes on Arsenal takeover bid
Stan Kroenke is closer to being forced to offer a takeover of Arsenal after increasing his shareholding to 28.9 per cent
Tuesday, 27, Oct 2009 05:14
By inthenews.co.uk staff.
American billionaire Stan Kroenke is closing in on a shareholding that would force him to make a takeover offer for Arsenal, after increasing his stake in the club still further today.
Kroenke, who has interests in several US sports teams, has bought shares to the value of £85,000 to increase his stake in the north London club to 28.9 per cent.
If he buys up another one per cent of the total shareholding of Arsenal to reach the 29.99 per cent threshold, he will be forced to table an offer to the other investors to buy them out.
Kroenke has been quietly increasing his interest in Arsenal over the course of the last few months, with piecemeal additions to his portfolio.
He is now the largest individual shareholder, ahead of Uzbekistani billionaire Alisher Usmanov (24 per cent).
The other major individual shareholders are Danny Fiszman and Lady Bracewell-Smith, and all four have entered into an agreement to make their shares in the club available to each other before selling to outside investors.
The other shares in the club are owned by a range of smaller individual investors, many of whom are fans, with few shares available for buying and selling on the open market.