November 28 – John Textor, whose multi-club ownership vehicle Eagle Holdings is preparing for a £2.3 billion stock market float, looks to be closing in on the sale of his 46% stake in Premier League Crystal Palace.
Current favourites in the bidding are a new consortium called Sportsbank who have reportedly offered £230 million for Textor’s shares.
Textor initially paid £86 million for a 40% stake in 2021. Having repeatedly failed to take majority control of the club to enable him to align it closer to his other club assets, he subsequently decided to sell.
Sportsbank is being advised Keith Harris who oversaw takeover deals at Manchester City, Aston Villa, and West Ham, has sat on the boards of Manchester United (even trying to take over the club from the Glazers), Leeds United and more recently Everton. He also had a short spell as chairman of the English Football League.
The money behind Sportsbrands is reportedly coming from the UAE and US investors who are represented by Zechariah Janjua and Navshir Jaffer, both of them Palace fans.
Momentum looks to be building behind Textor’s plan to list Eagle Holdings. In the past week he has announced £40 million of initial equity investment towards a $100 million pre-IPO financing round, led by Portuguese investment fund UCEA Capital Partners.
The sale of the Crystal Palace stake would massively ease Textor’s cash position. He has been stretched in recent weeks, in particular in France with Olympic Lyonnaise where the club is under a January transfer window ban and will be relegated to Ligue 2 at the end of the season if they are unable to address a financial crisis estimated to require €100 million to resolve.
Things are better in Brazil with his Botafogo ownership, with the club leading Serie A by three points with two games to play and a Copa Libertadores final to play this weekend. If they win that they will also qualify for the Intercontinental Cup (the new name for the old Club World Cup).
Raine Group are handling the Crystal Palace share sale.
Stanley Tang, the 31-year old entrepreneur who in 2013 co-founded food delivery company DoorDash, is also reportedly interested in buying Textor’s shares.
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