Billionaire takes Arsenal stake
-
David Dein, the former Arsenal vice-chairman, has sold his 14.5% stake in the club to a firm co-owned by a Russian billionaire.
The news of the involvement of Alisher Usmanov, who bought the stake for £75m, adds to pressure on the club's board to give in to a takeover.
Mr Usmanov's firm, Red and White Holdings, said it wanted to up its stake in Arsenal over time.
But it stressed there were no plans for an imminent increase in its holding. -
Arski?
-
Who is Alisher Usmanov?
Alisher Usmanov was born in Uzbekistan but has Russian citizenship and is estimated to be worth more than £3.7 billion.
His links to his native land enabled him to broker a deal with the daughter of President Karimov of Uzbekistan that gave the Russian state-owned Gazprom the rights to most of the gas in the former Soviet satellite state.
The 53-year-old is regarded as one of Russia's most aggressive bidders for foreign assets.
Gallagher Holdings, his Cyprus-registered investment vehicle, bought 13.5 per cent of Corus, the Anglo-Dutch steel company, in 2003 and 2004 until he sold his stake after a clash with management.
Usmanov bought 20 per cent of Mount Gibson, an Australian iron ore company, last November, while it was engaged in a takeover battle with a domestic rival.
The oligarch is also president of Gazprominvestholding, the investment arm of Gazprom. He bought the business newspaper Kommersant for $200 million (£102 million) last September from a Georgian billionaire who is close to Boris Berezovsky, the exiled billionaire and prominent critic of President Putin. -
I don't think hes as rich as RAOriginally posted by stellazio:Arski? -
at 3.6 billion he is probably 2nd only to RA.Originally posted by sand king:I don't think hes as rich as RA