Secrecy clouds Everton deal according too tomorrow's Daily Mail
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CcajuzmWAAEqnVA.jpg
Can't find the story online to see if theirs actually anything in this though
Here's the story:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...ez-heralding-new-investor-Farhad-Moshiri.html
Everton's new era is shrouded in mystery despite Roberto Martinez heralding new investor Farhad Moshiri
- Farhad Moshiri acquired a 49.9 per cent stake in Everton at the weekend
- Roberto Martinez believes he is the perfect man to invest in Everton
- Bill Kenwright will remain chairman, even if Moshiri’s stake gives him the most influential voice in the boardroom
By
MATT LAWTON FOR THE DAILY MAIL and
DOMINIC KING FOR THE DAILY MAIL
Armed, presumably, with the kind of information discussed only in the Goodison Park boardroom, Roberto Martinez assured Everton fans on Monday that the emergence of Farhad Moshiri as a major shareholder heralded a new era for the club.
There was probably an element of self-preservation in his words. After all, the arrival of a new major investor — albeit one with only a 49.9 per cent stake at this stage — places a manager doing an OK job at best under greater scrutiny.
The Spaniard admitted as much during his press conference ahead of Tuesday night's Barclays Premier League encounter at Aston Villa.
Roberto Martinez believes the new investment can elevate Everton to a higher level
‘It’s a results business and I’m going to be judged on my job,’ said Martinez. ‘That doesn’t change. What I’m very relaxed about is I know Everton will be in good hands with the new investor.
‘He’s someone who understands the heritage of our club. He’s not someone who wants to take Everton as an investment, he’s someone who wants to make Everton a successful, winning team.’
But the details of the deal struck between the Iranian billionaire and the Merseysiders remain sketchy, with nobody at the club yet prepared to elaborate on the brief statement issued on Saturday.
Why, after all, is it only 49.9 per cent when financial experts would expect a businessman of Moshiri’s wealth and experience to demand a controlling 51 per cent in return for such a huge investment?
And what — if there is facility for Moshiri to increase his stake — is the formula within the deal that enables a full-scale £200million takeover? Further to that, who of the existing shareholders sold what to the University of London- educated, Monaco-based accountant? On Monday there was a curious degree of secrecy.
Privately, club officials suggest the 49.9 per cent enables chairman Bill Kenwright and director Jon Woods — who between them owned around 46 per cent of the club prior to the Moshiri deal — to retain some control on the board. Kenwright will remain chairman, even if Moshiri’s stake gives him the most influential voice in the boardroom.
But it also gives Moshiri a chance to ease himself in before employing a mechanism — Sportsmail understands — to increase his stake to a controlling 75 per cent.
What we don’t yet know is just how committed he is to managing the club’s debt — most recently estimated to be in excess of £30m — investing in the squad, providing the club with a better chance of keeping their best players from the clutches of richer rivals and injecting some much-needed impetus into those new £300m stadium plans.
‘We need to create a football club that the player wants to be part of,’ said Martinez when discussing the vibrant young talents of Ross Barkley, John Stones and Romelu Lukaku, all of whom will be targets for top clubs this summer. On Monday night, Bosnian midfielder Muhamed Besic agreed a new deal that will keep the 23-year-old at the club until 2021.
‘It is no good us saying, “Yes, we will keep such and such”. If they don’t want to stay it will be the wrong investment. But if such and such want to stay, can we make them stay? The answer now is yes. It is as simple as that.’
Moshiri might have had a major stake in Arsenal but he has no form for any of this, the shares he held with his business partner Alisher Usmanov not enough to secure a place on the board at the Emirates.
It actually makes him something of an enigma. He is said to be an Arsenal supporter. But it has also been reported that he has a passion for Manchester United and once tried to buy Liverpool.
He certainly had a box at Arsenal, acquiring it after joining forces with Usmanov to purchase significant chunks of the north London club through their Red and White Holdings company.
In August 2007, they bought 14.65 per cent from former vice-chairman David Dein. A month later they increased that, in two instalments, to 23 per cent. Five years later, in June 2012, their stake increased again to just shy of 30 per cent. Moshiri sold his half back to Usmanov last week, thus providing him with the cash and the opportunity to complete a deal revealed by Sportsmail on Friday night.
Moshiri was Everton’s preferred bidder, even though the Americans John Jay Moores and Charles Noell had a six-week exclusivity period examining the books over Christmas.
But even with an estimated fortune of £1.3billion, Moshiri is nothing like as wealthy as Usmanov — currently Russia’s third-richest man — and this is something that also raises eyebrows in the City.
Experts wonder how much of his personal wealth Moshiri is really prepared to gamble on a Premier League football club.
He has clearly worked hard for it, after all, with records showing he has held at least 32 directorships from those early days as a chartered accountant working for firms like Ernst & Young and Deloitte.
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Everton have had an inconsistent season but Martinez believes with new investment the club can push on
Martinez did not seem to have any such concerns on Monday, the Spaniard insisting this is a game-changer for the club — exactly the kind of investment they have long been waiting for. Moshiri, he said, ‘had fallen in love with Everton’ and was relishing the chance to have a proper say in the running of a football club.
‘We haven’t got to the stage of discussing his exact plans yet, I am sure that conversation will take place,’ said Martinez.
‘But he’s been involved in a football club before and for a long time and he understands there has to be a process.
‘I am sure we will get to a point where we set benchmarks but at the moment there is such a positive feel about his influence and the way he has connected with our chairman.’
Perhaps the club — still a private company, remember — will reveal more detail once the deal has been approved by the Premier League. And perhaps then Moshiri will be able to make clear his intentions.
The 60-year-old is certainly no stranger to the media. His wife Nazenin Ansari is an Iranian journalist and is understood to be the managing editor of Kayhan London, a weekly Persian-language newspaper. She is also a former president of the Foreign Press Association who has written for the Guardian.
On Monday one friend told this newspaper she has actually separated from Moshiri.
Together the couple have two grown-up children, one of whom also appears to be moving towards a career in the media.
