January 18 – Any buyer thinking they were going to get a knock-down price from Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley for the club should think again. While Ashley may be king of the sports leisure discount market with his Sports Direct chain, he is not necessarily looking for a quick turnover of the club at a giveaway price.
Earlier this week Ashley announced that the bid from Amanda Staveley and her PCP Partners Groups was now off the table after talks on the sale broke down.
Ashley put the club formally up for sale in October 2017 with Staveley making a bid of £250 million in November. While reports had suggested that a deal was close it now looks like it wasn’t as close as the buyers had hoped.
Ashley is understood to be looking for £300 million and is unlikely to move on that price. He is also not interested in deal clauses that would see a price reduction if the club was relegated or any HMRC sanctions over outstanding tax investigations.
Staveley’s bid remains on the table and could still be increased if PCP still retained a strong appetite for the club.
Ashley has no real need to sale. Although the club are just three points off the relegation zone, financially it is in good shape, particularly with fans having returned to St James Park en masse following their 2015/16 relegation season that saw the club struggle to fill the 52,400 all-seat ground to anywhere near capacity.
The Toon Army might not like their club owner but it is no longer to the degree that it will keep them away from attending matches.
Much of this thawing in attitude is down to Spanish manager Rafa Benítez who was a fan favourite as soon as he arrived, even though he was unable to save the club from relegation.
Financially the 2015/16 relegation season was a relative success with the club still reporting a £4.2 million profit. But this was a huge drop from the previous year’s £36.2 million profit. This season in the Premier League should see a return to the financial good times and certainly takes the pressure of any need to sell for money reasons.
But Ashley is, at heart, a gambler and a deal maker. While Toon fans may be despairing (and in some cases very publicly) at the thought of having to live with him longer than they had hoped, there is solace in that he will clearly sell and will do it quickly – if the price is right and the deal is clean.
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