ToonTastic Posted December 15, 2006 Share Posted December 15, 2006 I know we have the take over thread but if this is true then I guess that can be locked and all comments about it can go here. Anyway BBC news this morning has reported that the club has agreed to sell the club to an American investor for over £200m, more news throughout the day. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Darth Toon Posted December 15, 2006 Share Posted December 15, 2006 This article from today's Mail seems to be the main source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/sport/football.html?in_article_id=422801&in_page_id=1779&in_a_source=&ct=5 "Newcastle United emerged last night as the latest Premiership club to be sold to foreign owners following top secret talks that have been taking place on Tyneside for the last month. American financiers Polygon and the United Bank of Switzerland, with billions of pounds at their disposal, have had their joint bid of £227million unanimously accepted by the Newcastle board. The heavyweight partnership are currently going through a period of 'due diligence' with the takeover expected to be completed early in the New Year. The Hall family and chairman Freddy Shepherd will collect £68m in the deal while manager Glenn Roeder will be bankrolled to the tune of £20m to recruit new players. The surprise takeover scuppers the rival interest shown by Jersey-based investors The Belgravia Group, who had been assessing Newcastle's financial position for months without making a concrete offer but gaining plenty of publicity in the process. Polygon and UBS, with a group of money men rather than one high-profile individual behind the takeover, began talking to Newcastle last summer before placing their accepted offer of 93p per share on the table. This values the club at £140 million with the deal also including picking up the monster debts of £87m. Newcastle shares closed yesterday at a year's high of 75.5p, up 1.5p on the day. The imminent takeover will lead to wholesale changes on the Newcastle board, although it is yet to be decided which of the financiers will run the club or the make-up of the new board. But certainly it will signal the end of the Hall era at Tyneside as well as the departure of current chairman Shepherd. The Halls, through the 28.5 per cent controlled by former chairman and current president Sir John's Wynyard company, and the 13 per cent connected to his son Douglas, will walk away with around £48m from the sale. Shepherd, who owns 26.7 per cent will receive around £20m. The prospective new owners have already made it clear that they do not intend to meddle immediately with the playing side - unlike Icelander Eggert Magnusson at West Ham, who sacked the manager Alan Pardew after just two games in the chairman's seat. The UBS-Polygon view is that Newcastle, 14th in the table, need no more upheaval if they are to retain their Premiership status. And manager Roeder is likely to be given around £20m to spend in the January transfer window to help secure the club's position in the top flight. The Belgravia interest in Newcastle was understood to have been sparked by the potential of a super-casino on Tyneside with the city still in the running to be awarded a licence. Polygon and UBS's interest in St James' Park is more football related. But they are aware that a Newcastle casino would propel the club into the financial tier of Manchester United and Chelsea. Newcastle already have a potential tie-up in place with American entertainment giants MGM. The American-Swiss team presented their offer to the Newcastle board on November 20. So it has infuriated the board that Belgravia, who hired Bell Pottinger as their PR advisors, have continued to promote themselves as the potential next owners of Newcastle. Only a week ago a spokesman for Belgravia, who had support from the Middle-East, said: "We have confirmed we are still in talks. It will happen when it happens." Even without the casino, the takeover will bring financial stability to a club that has always lived on the edge.UBS are one of the most profitable banks in the world. Their main interest in sport is looking after the riches of some of the world's wealthiest sportsmen while their sponsorship money is centred around golf. They have, however, branched into football by backing Euro 2008 in Switzerland and Austria. Polygon have their London base near Chelsea's Stamford Bridge but their secretive American owner Reade Griffith will not take a hands-on role at Newcastle in the manner of Roman Abramovich at Chelsea. They are best known in the UK for the aggressive stance they took during the corporate restructuring at British Energy and fashion retailer Monsoon. Their imminent takeover of Newcastle reflects the growing interest in the football industry from American hedge-funds, which were also key investors in Malcolm Glazer's takeover of Manchester United. Newcastle has cost a lot more than the £65m American Randy Lerner spent on acquiring Aston Villa or the Magnusson consortium's £107m for West Ham but the fanatical support of the Geordies, whose team last won major silverware in 1969 with the Fairs Cup, makes it something of a bargain even at £227m. Sir John Hall took control of Newcastle for just £3m in 1991 after a bitter battle with Gordon McKeag. Within six years he had stepped down as chairman and has been looking to dispose of his Newcastle shareholding for more than a year. The UBS-Polygon blueprint for running the club will be different from the other Premiership foreign takeovers in that the new owners will take a back seat themselves, but employ proven football and financial operators to take charge on a day-to-day basis at St James' Park. There will be a lot of surprise that Shepherd, in particular, who bleeds black and white, has voted for a takeover that will remove him from the chairman's seat. But he knows that the deal will secure the future of Newcastle." Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToonTastic Posted December 15, 2006 Share Posted December 15, 2006 See I thought that but the BBC needs confirmation from two sources before it's able to run a story so they must have got news from elsewhere as well. Basically they said all members of the board had agreed to the fee of £227m I'm not sure how much that is per share. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToonTastic Posted December 15, 2006 Share Posted December 15, 2006 In my opinion its great news for the club in that the whole setup can finally be change and hopefully more avenues exposed for the club to make money and help the club. And everyone knows the best way to make money is to be playing Champions League football. I also doubt very much the club will now have to have a Geordie manager so hopefully when it's time for Roeder to leave, whenever that might be, we'll get a world class manager in not a one the board like for the wrong reasons. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest nufc16 Posted December 15, 2006 Share Posted December 15, 2006 is this the same group that were behind the casino deal? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cronky Posted December 15, 2006 Share Posted December 15, 2006 I think it was my article that did it. :winking: Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhatTheFunk Posted December 15, 2006 Share Posted December 15, 2006 I don't know what to make of this!!! Hope to Jah it's true...but weren't there concerns about the Polygon outfit for some reason or another? 20 mill on players is a lot of money in January, considering. Look forward to hearing more Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhatTheFunk Posted December 15, 2006 Share Posted December 15, 2006 Oh, and how come this thread isn't 48 pages long yet? and what are the chances of this news being a cartload of cow dung? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dokko Posted December 15, 2006 Share Posted December 15, 2006 Polygon are a hedge fund (IIRC), but when they were looking at the toon before i dont think they had a heavy backer like UBS. If reports are true, they've wiped off £87m worth of debt when buying the club, so even if they fail, we've just been given £87m plus whatever they allow GR to spend in the winter window, and there after. I think anyone is better than what we've got right now, i just hope even the most hardened FS fans will be impressed by the new lot coming in, and we all enjoy success together, finally. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dokko Posted December 15, 2006 Share Posted December 15, 2006 Oh, and how come this thread isn't 48 pages long yet? and what are the chances of this news being a cartload of cow dung? Because the thread is only 30mins old, and its 7:40am in the morning? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhatTheFunk Posted December 15, 2006 Share Posted December 15, 2006 Oh, and how come this thread isn't 48 pages long yet? and what are the chances of this news being a cartload of cow dung? Because the thread is only 30mins old, and its 7:40am in the morning? Oh right i forget!! :roll: It's 10 AM here... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dokko Posted December 15, 2006 Share Posted December 15, 2006 Oh, and how come this thread isn't 48 pages long yet? and what are the chances of this news being a cartload of cow dung? Because the thread is only 30mins old, and its 7:40am in the morning? Oh right i forget!! :roll: It's 10 AM here... Where are you, just out of interest? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Darth Toon Posted December 15, 2006 Share Posted December 15, 2006 Still isn't being widely reported - nothing on .com or the official site. Anyone seen the Journal this morning yet? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taylor Swift Posted December 15, 2006 Share Posted December 15, 2006 It's early morning. Relax. If this happens, good stuff I say. The worst that can come of this is that they basically leave in a couple of years or whatever but by then, 87m worth of debt would have been wiped away. Great news imo. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnypd Posted December 15, 2006 Share Posted December 15, 2006 Polygon are a hedge fund (IIRC), but when they were looking at the toon before i dont think they had a heavy backer like UBS. If reports are true, they've wiped off £87m worth of debt when buying the club, so even if they fail, we've just been given £87m plus whatever they allow GR to spend in the winter window, and there after. I think anyone is better than what we've got right now, i just hope even the most hardened FS fans will be impressed by the new lot coming in, and we all enjoy success together, finally. they always had the UBS backing as far as i remember. i'm not sure about Polygon, some of their previous antics have been a little too off-the-wall for them to gain our trust, but UBS brings a modicum of respectability. would be very interesting to see the exact details of Polygon and UBS's relationship. BTW where have the BBC reported this news? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhatTheFunk Posted December 15, 2006 Share Posted December 15, 2006 Oh, and how come this thread isn't 48 pages long yet? and what are the chances of this news being a cartload of cow dung? Because the thread is only 30mins old, and its 7:40am in the morning? Oh right i forget!! :roll: It's 10 AM here... Where are you, just out of interest? Kypros, Zypern, Kibris, Cyprus Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dokko Posted December 15, 2006 Share Posted December 15, 2006 Oh, and how come this thread isn't 48 pages long yet? and what are the chances of this news being a cartload of cow dung? Because the thread is only 30mins old, and its 7:40am in the morning? Oh right i forget!! :roll: It's 10 AM here... Where are you, just out of interest? Kypros, Zypern, Kibris, Cyprus Lucky bugger, sounds nice. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest killers_perm Posted December 15, 2006 Share Posted December 15, 2006 BBC are reporting it as a review of the back pages of the Mail. No specific news item yet. IMHO a fresh approach, some new money and some +ve off the pitch publicity can only be good things - hopefully they will remain true to their stated intention of leaving the playing side alone - having said that, FFS didn't exactly get his trainers on and run about at the academy At least it puts us back up there as a world-wide recognised big club (£227M is more than all but 4 of the current premiership clubs would be valued at) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dokko Posted December 15, 2006 Share Posted December 15, 2006 Polygon are a hedge fund (IIRC), but when they were looking at the toon before i dont think they had a heavy backer like UBS. If reports are true, they've wiped off £87m worth of debt when buying the club, so even if they fail, we've just been given £87m plus whatever they allow GR to spend in the winter window, and there after. I think anyone is better than what we've got right now, i just hope even the most hardened FS fans will be impressed by the new lot coming in, and we all enjoy success together, finally. they always had the UBS backing as far as i remember. i'm not sure about Polygon, some of their previous antics have been a little too off-the-wall for them to gain our trust, but UBS brings a modicum of respectiviely. would be very interesting to see the exact details of Polygon and UBS's relationship. BTW where have the BBC reported this news? UBS no doubt will be in some control over proceedings, if not very much in the mix. It might be good for us to have two sets of people offering opinions and experience, rather than some fat wanker who fought his way out of the school gates come lunch time. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhatTheFunk Posted December 15, 2006 Share Posted December 15, 2006 Polygon are a hedge fund (IIRC), but when they were looking at the toon before i dont think they had a heavy backer like UBS. If reports are true, they've wiped off £87m worth of debt when buying the club, so even if they fail, we've just been given £87m plus whatever they allow GR to spend in the winter window, and there after. I think anyone is better than what we've got right now, i just hope even the most hardened FS fans will be impressed by the new lot coming in, and we all enjoy success together, finally. they always had the UBS backing as far as i remember. i'm not sure about Polygon, some of their previous antics have been a little too off-the-wall for them to gain our trust, but UBS brings a modicum of respectiviely. would be very interesting to see the exact details of Polygon and UBS's relationship. BTW where have the BBC reported this news? UBS no doubt will be in some control over proceedings, if not very much in the mix. It might be good for us to have two sets of people offering opinions and experience, rather than some fat wanker who fought his way out of the school gates come lunch time. :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: The image!!! Thanks!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
IndonesianToon Posted December 15, 2006 Share Posted December 15, 2006 Bye Fat Fred !!! Wish us luck ! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tachikoma Posted December 15, 2006 Share Posted December 15, 2006 Can't wait to see the look on NE5's face Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
womblemaster Posted December 15, 2006 Share Posted December 15, 2006 bah humbug!! i nearly bought a few shares yesterday, but i figured thered be no action till before agm next week ( Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest nufc_geordie Posted December 15, 2006 Share Posted December 15, 2006 To be fair to Shepherd he is being good to his word. The day Newcastle win the Intertwobob cup he sells up and go's. Quality. Although I may be doing him too much bredit, I wonder if he actually realizes that we have won it??? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colos Short and Curlies Posted December 15, 2006 Share Posted December 15, 2006 My missuses was going to buy me shares in NUFC for Christmas, warned her not to due to the takeover, fun to see her scratch her head to think of what else to get me. Good news for Jan anyway, just hope Glenn uses the cash in the right places Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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