The Sunday Times
 

Geneva financier mounts takeover bid for Everton
By Matthew Goodman, 19 September 2004

THE Geneva-based financier Christopher Samuelson is close to leading a takeover of Everton Football Club with an initial £12.8M investment, climbing to an eventual £30M.

Samuelson’s vehicle, the Fortress Sports Fund, hopes to take over a £15M loan arranged for the club by retail tycoon Philip Green last month.

As part of the deal, Samuelson will convert the loan into shares in the football club, emerging with a 29.9% stake.  Fortress will have an option to enlarge its holding at a later date to a controlling 50.1% stake, at a price of £17.2M.

Samuelson has assembled about a dozen investors for the scheme but they will not include Boris Zingarevich, a Russian millionaire businessman revealed by The Sunday Times to be a key figure in the takeover of the Merseyside club.  Zingarevich dropped out because he did not want the publicity that came with the deal.

Samuelson, who describes himself as a committed Everton fan, is investing part of his personal wealth in the deal.

He said fellow investors include Michele Saba, a private banker; Patricia German-Ribon, a member of the Aramayo mining family; Guy de la Tour du Pin and Emily Willi, two wealthy Europeans; and Robert Steelhammer and Michele Miller, who are past business associates of Samuelson.

Samuelson said another half dozen individuals had also contributed money but he declined to reveal their identities.

Under the terms of the proposed deal, Everton’s current majority shareholder a company called True Blue Holdings, would be liquidated and the shares in Everton passed to its shareholders, who include club chairman Bill Kenwright

Fortress has made it a condition of its investment that Kenwright stay on as chairman.  The fund is also keen for team manager David Moyes to continue in his role.

It is understood that Kenwright is keen to see the deal go through and resolve the issue of the club’s ownership.  An announcement could be made in the next couple of days.

Samuelson said he thought Everton had great potential and that it could draw regular crowds of between 55,000 and 60,000 people. “There is a lot of room for improvement but Everton has a good team,” he said.

Samuelson is a co-founder of the Fortress Sports Fund alongside Kevin Neal, a fellow investment adviser, and Jerome Anderson, a football agent known for his links to Arsenal.

Anderson’s clients include Thierry Henry and he has helped bring stars such as Dennis Bergkamp to the Premiership champions.

Speculation has swirled round Everton for several weeks as it grapples with its finances.  Kenwright has been searching for new investors for months.

He first bought into the club four years ago, buying out hamper king Peter Johnson for £20M.  His fellow shareholders include Paul Gregg, the leisure entrepreneur.

Kenwright avoided being voted out at an extraordinary meeting this month, after introducing new chief executive Keith Wyness.  He has provoked fans’ anger after selling the club’s star centre-forward, Wayne Rooney, to Manchester United for almost £30M.

Everton have had their best-ever start to a Premiership season, including earning a draw against United at Old Trafford.

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