The Premier League is set to be overrun by Middle Eastern and American owners in the coming years, with another historical takeover of a historical club on the verge of happening.
Everton’s ownership has failed them in recent years and the club is currently embroiled in an FFP scandal with the league. They received punishment last season for it, losing a significant amount of points which saw them spend quite some time in the relegation zone. Sean Dyche, however, worked to save them and they will be a Premier League team for 2024/25.
Reports in the past also suggest that their current owners are looking to exit the club which means a sale is on the cards. There have been talks about how that will happen and now, it looks like we finally have the first bit of information on the matter.
An unnamed Saudi royal has thrown his weight behind a consortium that wants to buy the club. This is according to a journalist from The Independent.
Previously, a journalist from The Athletic reported that two other parties made approaches to buy the club. One of the parties is the pair of Liverpool-based businessmen Andy Bell and George Downing, who have secured financing agreements with two firms to take over the club based in their hometown. The other party is an American group with MSP Partners as their headline name.
The new bid to buy the club which is backed by the unnamed Saudi royal is led by Vatche Manoukian, an Everton fan who has submitted a “£400 million all-equity bid” to the current owners. Vatche Manoukian has reportedly been in talks with Everton’s owners for weeks before making his first offer last Friday.
According to the report, Manoukian’s proposal would ‘not involve leveraging extra debt on to Everton and putting its future at further risk and would entail providing operational cash and setting up a sustainable long-term strategy.’
The reports also claimed that Everton have received the offer and are considering it and that Manoukian, his Saudi investor and the other members of his consortium are confident in their prospects of beating the other two competitors.
Should Manoukian’s bid be successful, Everton will join Manchester City and Newcastle United as clubs with Arab ownership. Should the American group succeed in their takeover bid, the Toffees will be one of 10 clubs to have American ownership.
The reports from The Athletic adds: “Manoukian – a London-based businessman and lawyer and an Everton supporter – is a partner at tech investment firm IMS Digital Ventures and has put together a group including American investors, a Saudi royal and the Australian Myer family. Myer Family Investments has a net asset value of around $1.5bn.
It also states that Manoukian and his group view Everton as “perhaps the last sleeping giant available on the market” and “hope to take the club back to it’s traditional position at the top of the game.”
