Vice chairman David DeinArsenal may be faltering in the Premiership but an astonishing rise in the club’s shares has bought a late season bonanza in the boardroom. Takeover rumours have driven the huge share price to a record high of £6,200, up £900 on this week alone. The surge has added millions to the wealth of the club’s 10 directors. The most spectacular return has been made by vice chairman David Dein, who first bought into the north London club in 1983, spending £290,250 on 1,161 shares. Peter Hill-Wood, the club’s chairman, said at the time: “I think he’s crazy. It’s dead money.” But today Mr Dein, a lifelong supporter, is sitting on a stake worth about £57 million.
The latest spiralling of the share price was triggered by a sale of part of the holding owned by Danny Fiszman, the largest shareholder. It means Arsenal is now Britain’s second most valuable club, after Manchester United with a market value of £385 million. Any bidder would have to offer substantially more to get control, putting a potential price tag of £500 million on the Gunners.
However analysts have dismissed the prospect of Arsenal — the last of the Premiership’s Champions League clubs to be in English ownership — being sold to foreign investors. The club said that there has been no approach and there is no interest in selling. But the stellar performance of the share price has led to speculation among fans as to who is buying them.
Mr Fiszman, another lifelong supporter, received £5,975 a share when he off loaded 659 shares last week, worth £3.9 million. That sparked a new round of takeover talk centred around Middle East investors. A spokesman for the Arsenal Supporters Trust said: “It is all very intriguing. We know who is selling, but we don’t know who is buying.”
