Amanda Staveley has not sold Newcastle United shares


 
 
 
 
 
 

Wednesday brought big Amanda Staveley headlines.

With the very reliable George Caulkin of The Athletic bringing the news that she and her husband are leaving Newcastle United.

As well as a minority shareholding, Amanda Staveley (along with her husband Mehrdad Ghodoussi) has also had a management contract.

Basically, Amanda Staveley and her partner were paid by the club to help run it in the post-takeover period. That period is now seemingly at an end.

As well as the end of a management contract to help run the football club, a lot of speculation as to what will happen to her shareholding. Will she keep it? Sell to the Reubens or Saudi Arabia PIF? Divide it up and sell some to both of the other two shareholders?

One bit of very misleading reporting by some journalists is talk that Amanda Staveley has already sold shares in Newcastle United.

I am not talking about what happens with her now, I am talking about the previous few years since the takeover.

As we all know, when they bought out Mike Ashley, the post-takeover showed shareholdings of 80% Saudi Arabia PIF, 10% Reuben family, and 10% Amanda Staveley. That 10% stake is widely believed to have been Amanda Staveley’s gift/reward from the Saudi Arabia PIF and/or the Reuben family for having been the public face and lead, in helping to get the takeover done.

Anyway, the way it was set up when they took over Newcastle United, Saudi Arabia PIF acquired their 80% stake in the club as ‘NCUK Investment Limited’, while the Reubens’ RB Sports and Media and Staveley’s Cantervale Holdings took 20% as ‘JV1 Limited’.

The shares between RB Sports and Media and Cantervale Holdings were initially equal at a 10% stake in the club each.

However, Companies House updates in recent times have shown that Amanda Staveley now holds just a 5.7% (not 6% as is being generally reported now) stake in the club, with RB Sports and Media’s share increasing to 14.3%.

Once again though, those journalists who are claiming Amanda Staveley has ‘sold’ a large portion of her shares since the takeover, are getting it wrong.

The Companies House updates also confirmed the removal of ‘pre-emption rights’ at JV1 Limited, which means fresh shares do not have to be issued to existing shareholders in equal proportion.

So what has actually happened, is that the Newcastle United owners have six times (see below) injected cash into the club, since the original takeover in October 2021. This is nothing unusual with a football club, indeed any business, which has been starved of proper investment and left a virtual shell by the original owner of 14+ years. Money needs to be spent after takeover to get Newcastle United back on its feet and be successful on and off the pitch, the idea of course is that in the future the owners will reap the rewards, with a far more valuable business/football club.

Each of these cash injections had to be pro rata, reflecting the different shareholdings, So for every collective £100 put into NUFC, Saudi Arabia PIF needed to pay £80 to reflect their 80% shareholding and under their joining JV1 Limited 20%, Amanda Staveley and the Reuben family putting in £20 between them.

November 2021, only a month after the Newcastle United takeover, the owners injected an extra £38.5m.

Looking at the Companies House filings, it appears that Saudi Arabia put £30.8m of this in (80% of the £38.5m), whilst JV1 Limited put in the other 20% (£7.7m), the Reubens £3.85m and Amanda Staveley £3.85m.

However, after that initial injection, the following five injections of cash appear to show that Saudi Arabia PIF has contributed 80% each time, but the Reubens to have paid the other 20%.

So Amanda Staveley not having sold any shares, instead, her shareholding in JV1 Limited (who own 20% of the club) reduced each time there was an injection of capital into Newcastle United, whilst the Reubens increased their shareholding in JV1 Limited by paying for the cash injections into NUFC, which at the same time meant their Newcastle United shareholding went up each time.

So we have gone from October and November 2021 of Newcastle United ownership – Saudia Arabia PIF 80%, Reubens 10% and Amanda Staveley 10%.

To now Saudia Arabia PIF 80%, Reubens 14.3% and Amanda Staveley 5.7%.

The Newcastle United owners paid Mike Ashley a total of £305m to own the club.

However, subsequent cash injections, the latest injection of £37m put into NUFC on 28 March 2024 (made public via Companies House on Thursday 11 April 2024). It always takes a period of time, usually weeks, between things happening, and then the public is able to see on the Companies House site. This will no doubt be also the case if/when Amanda Staveley does indeed sell her shareholding in Newcastle United/JV1 Limited.

As you can see below in the breakdown of cash injections and original purchase.

The £305m paid to Mike Ashley on 7 October 2021, has been followed by six cash injections by the new/current owners totalling £302.9m, almost as much as the original purchase price. This takes the overall investment in the club to £607.9m.

The breakdown of where this £607.9m figure comes from:

7 October 2021 – £305m – This is the amount of money the new Newcastle United owners paid to Mike Ashley.

9 November 2021 – £38.5m – This additional amount of money was invested into the club by the new Newcastle United owners.

24 January 2022 – £40.0m – This additional amount of money was invested into the club by the new Newcastle United owners.

26 October 2022 – £70.4m – This additional amount of money was invested into the club by the Newcastle United owners.

10 February 2023 – £57.0m – This additional amount of money was invested into the club by the Newcastle United owners

22 August 2023 – £60.0m – This additional amount of money was invested into the club by the Newcastle United owners.

28 March 2024 – £37.0m – This additional amount of money was invested into the club by the Newcastle United owners.

I don’t think we will have to wait too long to find out what Amanda Staveley has decided, Companies House maybe/probably even before the 2024/25 Premier League season kicks off, is set to (in my opinion) make public who she has sold her 5.7% Newcastle United shareholding to. Which in turn could give us a significant indication of the future direction of the football club, certainly in terms of ownership.