FT: Iranian-American businessman Jam Najafi plans to buy Tottenham Hotspur for $3.75 billion
[ad_1]
Jam Najafi, head of MSP Sports Capital, a sports investment company, is preparing an offer to buy English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur for $3.75 billion, reports Financial Times with reference to two sources aware of the businessman’s plans.
The club is now owned by British businessmen Joe Lewis and Daniel Levy. They became majority owners of the club in 2000, buying a 26% stake from British businessman Sugar Alan for £21.9m. According to FT sources, Mr Najafi plans to contact the owners about the purchase of Tottenham in a few weeks.
Tottenham are currently fifth in the Premier League. The last trophy the team won in 2008, it was the third most prestigious League Cup in England. At the same time, Tottenham, according to the FT, shows good financial results – in the past financial year, the club earned about 444 million pounds.
Jam Najafi, 60, is from Iran. He came to the US at the age of 12 without knowing English and learned the language because he “watched a lot of TV,” reports the FT. Through Najafi Companies and MSP Sports Capital, Mr. Najafi invests in, among others, the McLaren racing team and the X Games, a world extreme sports game. In December, he acquired a minority stake in the Phoenix Suns NBA team.
Last spring, American businessman Todd Beley bought Chelsea from Roman Abramovich. The total costs of the American entrepreneur in the future should be £4.25 billion ($5.16 billion). But of this amount, only £2.5 billion went directly to the purchase of Chelsea shares.
In February, the Daily Mail and Bloomberg, citing sources reportedthat Qatari investors plan to buy Manchester United from the Glazer family. The Glazers are asking £6bn for the club. Plans to buy the Manchester club were also announced in January by INEOS chief Jim Ratcliffe (one of the UK’s richest men, worth about $28.2bn).
[ad_2]
Source link
