Stan Kroenke ups his Arsenal stake again
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Stan Kroenke ups his Arsenal stake again
Stan Kroenke consolidated his position as the dominant figure on the Arsenal board on Friday when he swept up eight per cent of shares, taking his stake to 28.3 per cent to make him the largest shareholder in the club.
High stakes: Stan Kroenke bought 4,839 shares from Arsenal director Richard Carr....Kroenke’s move, which cost him around £46 million, means a club once known as “The Bank of England” is now majority owned by overseas investors, with Uzbek minerals tycoon Alisher Usmanov owning close to 25 per cent.
Kroenke paid between £8,500 and £10,500 per-share, well above the recent average price of £6,500, for 4,839 shares controlled by the Carr family, long-term members of the Arsenal board. He bought the shares from a group of shareholders affiliated to the Carr and Bracewell-Smith families: Richard Carr, grandson of former chairman Lord Bracewell Smith, Clive Carr and Lady Sarah Phibbs-Bagge. Richard Carr, who sold his 4.4 per cent stake to Kroenke for more than £25 million, will remain as a director of the football club.
Lady Nina Bracewell Smith, who owns 15.9 per cent of the club and was forced off the board in December last year, has not sold any of her shares. Kroenke’s move further isolates her.
His next move could be to mount a full takeover, which would be obligatory if his stake rises above 30 per cent. For now his alliance with Danny Fiszman, from whom he bought a tranche of shares in March, forms the club’s axis of power.
Peter Hill-Wood, Chairman of Arsenal, said: “I would like to pay tribute to the long-standing commitment that the Carr family has shown towards Arsenal. The Club is hugely indebted to them for the role that they have played in the development and success of the Club over the years.”