£300m Toon bid but Ash wants more
MIKE ASHLEY has been offered around £300million for Newcastle – but wants £50m more.
An official bid to Ashley (above) has been tabled by investors fronted by broker Amanda Staveley (above, right), giving Toon’s owner the chance to cash
in before the January transfer window.
The club was put up for sale last month with Ashley admitting he cannot compete with the riches of the Big Six.
The ball is now in Ashley’s court after Staveley, who attended a win over Stoke recently, hardened her initial interest on behalf of her PCP Partners Capital group.
Newcastle last night refused to comment, saying Ashley was respecting the secrecy agreement signed by all parties.
Although the exact size of the bid has not been revealed, a figure of £300m would give Ashley a £38m profit on his investment in the club.
But he is likely to want closer to £350m because of the rapid inflation of the Premier League TV deal to £100m-plus per year.
He bought the club 10 years ago from Sir John Hall and Freddy Shepherd for £133m. He has since injected £129m of interestfree loans.
It is unclear whose money is on the table to buy Newcastle, and how much cash there will be for a transfer kitty.
Rafa Benitez fears he will get no money to spend in January if a takeover deal doesn’t go through.
He has been working on two lists of transfer targets – one cut-price, the other more extravagant should extra funds materialise via a change of ownership.
Relegation alarm bells have been ringing with Newcastle on a poor run of one win in seven games and fans beginning to get restless.
Ashley has been in charge on Tyneside during a decade of turmoil.
United’s highest finish under him is fifth, with two relegations and two promotions. Their record in the cups has been utterly miserable.
If Ashley sells up he can devote his time to his Sports Direct empire and could use the cash to buy into other retailing giants to strengthen his hand in the High Street.