Who is new Everton major shareholder Farhad Moshiri? via Royal Blue Mersey
The former Arsenal part owner is reportedly set to become the majority owner at Goodison Park.
A takeover of sorts at
Everton seems to be gathering pace, with reports that the former
Arsenal shareholder is now going to be majority shareholder of the Toffees.
BREAKING: The Club is to have a new major shareholder in Farhad Moshiri who brings the promise of new investment. More to follow.
#EFC
— Everton (
@everton)
February 27, 2016
The Blues had previously been linked with American duo John Jay Moores and Charles Noell, who appeared to be in the final stages of taking charge at Goodison Park in recent months.
However, that has now diminished, with the
Telegraph claiming that former Arsenal shareholder Farhad Moshiri has manoeuvred himself into a position to beat that duo to the punch.
But who is this mysterious buyer that has suddenly emerged from the shadows to become the leading candidate to wrestle control from Bill Kenwright?
Well, here's what
Forbes have to say on him.
Iranian-British businessman and investor Farhad Moshiri lives in London and holds shares in numerous companies in the UK and Russia, including Russian mining and steel manufacturing giant Metalloinvest, Russian mobile phone operator Megafon and Arsenal, the British soccer team.
Of course, of most interest to Everton fans is how much he is worth, and in that regard they may be somewhat disappointed. As far as
Forbes are concerned, he is worth $1.79billion, around £1.4billion as of their rich list last year.
That leaves him at number 894 on the Forbes billionaire list, and the 26th richest man in Britain.
Putting those fortunes into context in the Premier League, he sits far behind the likes of Roman Abramovich of
Chelsea (£5.9bn), Stan Kroenke (£4.1bn) and Alisher Usmanov (£9.4bn) at Arsenal and
Joe Lewis (£3.5bn) of
Tottenham Hotspur.
His wealth is more comparative to the likes of Vichai Srivaddhamaprabha of
Leicester City (£1.8bn), Denis Coates at
Stoke City (£1.6bn) and ahead of
Liverpool owner John Henry at Liverpool (£1bn). Those figures are courtesy of a report from the
Independent last year.
It his ties to Arsenal, which are particularly interesting though, with his sale of his shares in that club looking to be the driving force of the purchase of Everton.
He had, until very recently, been a major shareholder in the club alongside Usmanov, with the duo having progressively bought a number of Arsenal shares via Red & White holdings since buying 14.65% from David Dein in 2007.
However, he decided to sell those shares, having grown frustrated that the money he had invested into the Gunners was not enough to earn him a place on the board.
According to reports, that 15% share is worth around the £200m mark; with
Bloomberg reporting in 2012 that they were worth $238million, basically, very similar to the sale price that has been widely reported for Everton.
Rumor so far has it that with Moshiri taking over as majority shareholder that he will keep Kenwright as club chairman. It is quite possible that Kenwright has finally identified the ideal buyer for Everton he has reportedly spent the best part of two decades searching for.
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