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2 months ago
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When the ‘consortium’ bought out Mike Ashley in October 2021, the post-takeover showed shareholdings of 80% Saudi Arabia PIF, 10% Reuben family, and 10% Amanda Staveley.
That 10% stake was believed by some fans 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.
After all, the financial power of the Saudi Arabia PIF speaks for itself, whilst with a fortune of £25billion the Reuben family is one of the richest families in the UK, if not the richest.
Whilst Amanda Staveley was making a living at a far lower level, by helping the super-rich come together to do deals.
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 Reuben family’s RB Sports and Media and Amanda Staveley’s Cantervale Holdings took 20% as ‘JV1 Limited’. Back in October 2021, those shares between RB Sports and Media and Cantervale Holdings were equal at a 10% stake in the club each.
Now thanks to various filings from various business entities, made public by Companies House (which is where these companies are obliged by law to do so), a clearer picture appears to have now emerged of how it all worked between the Reuben family and Amanda Staveley, when it came to the Newcastle United takeover.
Football finance expert Kieran Maguire commenting on the filings at Companies House by the Reuben family (RB Sports and Media) and Amanda Staveley (Cantervale):
‘Cantervale Ltd, the company owned by Amanda Staveley through which she invested in Newcastle, settles five loans from RB Rights and Media Ltd, owned by James Reuben of the Reuben Brothers. Cantervale owed RBRM over £34m per the 2022 accounts. Looks as if RB lent her money to buy into Newcastle United.’
These are the public filings at Companies House that Kieran Maguire is referring to, showing the identity of the people involved and what has happened:
One document:
Second document:
Third document:
Interesting stuff from Kieran Maguire on what appears to have happened.
With then this document from JV1 Limited appearing to then show where the money came from for Amanda Staveley to repay the Reuben family:
So just to complete the picture…
This is the breakdown of how the Newcastle United owners have paid out £607.9m in their investment in the club so far, the initial £305m and then another £302.9m when putting in more cash to build/rebuild the business/football club:
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.
The Saudia Arabia PIF paid for 80% of the takeover, which was £244m, then the Reubens and Amanda Staveley the other 20% between them, 10% each (which was £30.5m each).
Any further investment in the club by the owners was supposed to be on the same percentage basis and indeed the Saudi Arabia PIF paid in 80% of each of the six further investments.
However, whilst the very first of the six further investments on 9 November 2021 was equally shared between Amanda Staveley and the Reubens when it came to the other 20%, the other five weren’t, the Reubens put in all of the other 20% for those most recent five investments (as shown by other documents filed at Companies House).
So Amanda Staveley’s takeover investment was £30.5m, then she put in 10% of the £38.5m the owners put in on 9 November 2021, which was another £3.85m, bringing her total investment in Newcastle United to £34.35m.
Which of course is the figure (over £34m) that Kieran Maguire quoted as Amanda Staveley owing to the Reuben family, as per those 2022 accounts.
None of this changes the fact that Amanda Staveley has done an amazing job and played a key role in the Newcastle United takeover happening, then continuing post-takeover when she and husband Mehrdad Ghodoussi were awarded a management contract that meant they were paid to help run the club after the buyout.
However, I think that was looks crystal clear now, and indeed has been for many of us from the start, Amanda Staveley was never really on any kind of equal footing in terms of being an owner of Newcastle United, with the Reuben family and the Saudi Arabia PIF.
I think realistically, there appears to have been no long-term intention of Amanda Staveley remaining as a shareholder at Newcastle United. With it always going to end up after a certain amount of time (a three-year plan?) that it would be the Saudi Arabia PIF and Reubens owning the club together, with the Reubens as the sole minority shareholder as they are now with 15% and the Saudis with 85%.
Good luck to Amanda Staveley in the future, she has very much earned the cash she has made from her involvement with the football club.

 
