U.S. billionaire Kroenke to buy out Arsenal partner
Co-owner the second Russian to pull back from EPL investment this year
The majority owner of Arsenal soccer club agreed to buy Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov’s stake in a £602.4-million ($1-billion) deal, ending a dispute between the tycoons over management of the London Premier League team.
U.S. billionaire Stan Kroenke will make an offer to acquire all the shares in Arsenal Holdings, he said Tuesday. Usmanov agreed to tender his 30 per cent stake in a deal that values the club at about £1.8 billion. Kroenke already owns about two thirds of the company.
A fans’ group greeted his proposal to delist the publicly traded company with dismay, calling it a “dreadful day” since they will lose the chance to own shares in the club and make their voices heard at the annual meeting.
With Usmanov’s departure, Arsenal also loses a shareholder who had pushed for the strug- gling club to spend more on buying star players.
Usmanov is the second Russian billionaire to pull back from an investment in the Premier League this year. Roman Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea football club, shelved a major redevelopment of the club’s stadium, blaming an unfavourable investment climate.
The decisions come against a backdrop of worsening U.K.Russian relations, with Britain accusing Russia of poisoning a former spy and his daughter in Salisbury, England.
Despite his shareholding, Usmanov was shut out of the process of developing strategy at Arsenal and didn’t have a seat on the board.
Manager Arsene Wenger, who had led the club since 1996, stepped down at the end of the most recent campaign, in which the team finished sixth in the league and again missed out on the elite Champions League competition.
Kroenke, 71, plans to make a compulsory buyout offer for all remaining shares once he has 90 per cent of the stock.
Kroenke owns the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams. His wife, Walmart heiress Ann Walton Kroenke, owns the NBA’s Denver Nuggets and NHL’s Colorado Avalanche.