Official Bid Made

[Jammy89]

Financier Amanda Staveley has submitted a formal £300m takeover offer to Newcastle owner Mike Ashley to buy the club.

Sky News has learnt that Ms Staveley's PCP Capital Partners tabled a bid to buy Newcastle from Mr Ashley late last week.

It was unclear on Monday evening whether PCP was the only credible bidder for the club, although people close to the process said the logical next step would be to award Ms Staveley a period of exclusivity within which to negotiate a deal.

That could come as soon as this week, according to insiders.


PCP's money is a combination of Ms Staveley's equity and that of her major investors, which include funds based in the Middle East.

Announcing his intention to sell the club in October, lawyers for Mr Ashley said he hoped to finalise the sale of the Premier League outfit by Christmas, although it remains possible that the process could slip into the New Year.

Speculation about Ms Staveley's intentions has been rampant since she attended Newcastle's home match against Liverpool earlier this season.


In October, Newcastle's lawyer told Sky Sports that Ashley hoped to finalise the sale of the Premier League outfit by Christmas
PCP had been exploring a deal to buy the Merseyside club from its American owners for much of the last year, but was ultimately deterred by their repeated attempts to increase Liverpool's price tag.

Negotiations with Mr Ashley, who has faced incessant criticism from Newcastle fans for a perceived dearth of investment in new players, remain subject to agreement on the precise price at which he is prepared to sell the club.

One City ally of the Sports Direct tycoon believes the headline valuation attached to any deal will exceed £300m, with PCP expected to allocate substantial transfer funds to Newcastle manager Rafael Benitez.


Ms Staveley's track record in both finance and football could encourage Newcastle supporters that her potential arrival as the club's owner will herald a new era of stability on Tyneside.

She was the orchestrator of Manchester City's takeover by Abu Dhabi-based investors in 2008 - not long after Mr Ashley had bought Newcastle for more than £240m.

It is in a legal context that Ms Staveley has attracted repeated attention in the financial press, however, amid long-running civil proceedings she launched against Barclays in relation to its multibillion pound fundraisings during the 2008 banking crisis.


That case is unlikely to conclude for some time as the bank contends with a separate criminal probe brought by the Serious Fraud Office.

Ms Staveley is understood to be keen to line up a string of commercial partnerships to replace those negotiated under Mr Ashley, including the association of Sports Direct's name with its St James' Park home.

A spokesman for Ms Staveley declined to comment on Monday night, while Mr Ashley's spokesman could not be reached for comment.

It's happening. . . hopefully.

[pboromag]

its a start
will there be an end

300 mill wont buy it

i hope they dont think they can cheep strike ash

as i fear they will be wasting their time

this could be them trying to flush the others out if there is any

and to see if they are serious and at what level they value the toon at

but the process has started which is good

[toptoon]

Good.

Hard to know what is happening just yet but, one good thing, is this suggests that the tax investigation is no big deal as far as the club is concerned.

[Kal]

this suggests that the tax investigation is no big deal as far as the club is concerned.

Penfold will take the rap for that.

[HughieG]

Will 300mil be enough for Ashley though?

[waalsendmick]

reports coming out now that the bid is LESS than £300m and considerably less than Ashley wants.

I don't think this is the end game yet.

[Jammy89]

It was never going to be the end game.

Maybe the start of it though, was always going to be bid and then counter.

[toptoon]

If Staveley is clever (and she is) then she´ll use us in the deal. She knows that all of us want rid of Ashley and so she´ll try to build the pressure on him to sell on her terms. The only trouble is that Ashley has shown over the years that he doesn´t care.

Having said that, if a bid goes in and Ashley refuses the sale then his life at NUFC will be complete sh*t from here on.

[toonlegend]

the club is not worth more than £300 million. The rest of the money ashley is trying to recuperate are losses directly attributed to his mismanagement of the club, resulting in 2 relegations. why should others pay for his mistakes.

[waalsendmick]

according to Talkshoite, PCP think they can get the club cheaper than Ash wants, because, if he doesn't sell now, then fails to invest in january, then Rafa will walk, and the club will be worth less, meaning Ash would lose out.