Is Ashley really close to selling this time?
The Chronicle Est 1885 and incorporating the Evening World. Published by ncjMedia, 2nd Floor, INTU Eldon Square, Eldon Court, Percy Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7JB, and printed by Reach Printing Services (Teesside) Limited. Registered as a newspaper at the Post Office
A fresh round of takeover intrigue has been prompted by reports from a niche financial website that Mike Ashley is close to finalising a deal with a US consortium to sell Newcastle United.
The latest story is being reported by Betaville, a website set up by former Daily Telegraph finance writer Ben Harrington, who claims Ashley has been in the US to clinch a deal for the club.
As with all takeover stories it comes with the usual health warnings about Ashley’s intentions – and fans and journalists have had their fingers burned by reports of this nature before, with Amanda Staveley’s camp briefing that she was supposedly close to a deal last December, only for that to fizzle out.
Betaville reports that: “Ashley, founder of London-listed retailer Sports Direct, rekindled sale talks 18 months or so ago and, even since then buyers, such as dealmaker Amanda Staveley, have come and gone (often via the sports pages of British newspapers).
“But now Betaville hears from usually reliable sources the maverick entrepreneur has been over in the US putting the finishing touches to a deal to sell the business to a mystery consortium of investors.
“It’s not clear who the buyers for are but the fact that Ashley was over in America to finalise the details implies that perhaps the purchasers for the Premier League club are from that part of the world.”
These reports have emerged a few weeks after news that Peter Kenyon – the former Manchester United and Chelsea chief executive – was trying to piece together a consortium to buy United.
Sky reported that Rockefeller Capital Management, led by Wall Street financier Greg Fleming, were among the investors who were potentially interested in backing Kenyon.
It is understood that Kenyon and Ashley share a personal relationship, and so the Sports Direct magnate is receptive to the approach – but the ex-Chelsea chief exec is not yet believed to be in a position to make an offer.
Betaville’s claims have been put to club sources, who insist that it is “business as usual” at NUFC.
Nobody internally at St James’ Park has been briefed that a takeover is imminent, while Ashley attended his seventh Magpies match in a row at the weekend when he watched Newcastle defeat AFC Bournemouth on Saturday – despite these reports claiming he has been in the US.