Nigerian takeover only 48 hours away?

[Geordies 0]

I cannot understand why a group of Business men would want to pay 350 million for a club that is worth maybe 250 million (maybe less now) something stinks here there are already reports of this being a crock of shit.

[OTF 7297]

I can't believe someone still thinks Mike Ashley has credible business sense.

[Happy Face 29]

I can't believe someone still thinks Mike Ashley has credible business sense.

 

The billionaire?

[Ketsbaia 0]

The Nigerian takeover that may not exist vs. The man who lost £300 million on HBOS shares when every fucker else knew they were due to fall

 

[OTF 7297]

I can't believe someone still thinks Mike Ashley has credible business sense.

 

The billionaire?

 

He may have once had 'credible business sense'. But nothing he has done at Newcastle in recent times could lead you to the same conclusion. The handling of the whole affair has been comically amateur.

[Fop 1]

Everyone seems to be saying this is either a myth/wind up or a con.

 

I still wouldn't put it past Ashley and his compulsive gambling disorder to still try and sell it to them anyway.

[Jimbo 175]

Tycoons Toons talk

 

From Reuters, Friday:

 

Four Nigerian tycoons are finalising a bid to buy Premier League club Newcastle United and could ask fans' hero Kevin Keegan to return as manager if they succeed, the businessman leading the bid told Reuters.

 

Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley put the team up for sale two weeks ago, having fallen foul of the fans after Keegan resigned saying he did not have full control over the buying and selling of players.

 

Chris Nathaniel, a London-based businessman who runs football and entertainment consultancy NVA Management, said four Nigerian entrepreneurs were ready to put up the cash to buy the club and that their bid was being finalised.

 

"We're at the stage now where our end are doing the relevant security checks on the individuals who have the money," Nathaniel, who is coordinating the bid, told Reuters.

 

"We have a lawyer here who is doing those checks before finally submitting a bid to Newcastle," he said by telephone.

 

Nigerian media reports have said the consortium - whose members remain a closely guarded secret - have come up with £350m so far but want to find an additional £100-150m to secure the deal.

 

Nathaniel said that until the British lawyers had finalised their checks and drawn up the paperwork, it was difficult to say exactly how much money had been put forward.

 

"We don't know is the honest answer. We're not going to know that until it's lodged with the lawyers here," he said.

 

"I've been told the money is there in Nigeria but I need to see evidence of it here before we can present it to the club."

 

Ashley completed his £134m takeover of Newcastle in July, 2007, but his relationship with the fans has deteriorated rapidly since Keegan's sudden exit on 4 September, just eight months after returning for a second spell as manager.

 

"Kevin's a legend on Tyneside and I think anybody looking to buy that football club would not be very smart if they didn't have Kevin involved in some capacity, that's if Kevin wants to come back," Nathaniel said.

 

"If I was advising anyone that was buying the club I would certainly suggest Kevin would be the right man for the job," he said, adding he had not yet contacted Keegan about returning.

 

Nathaniel, one of whose parents is Nigerian, said the idea of a Nigerian bid for an English club came during a trip to the soccer-mad West African country this year with Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand, one of NVA Management's clients.

 

"We met a few characters, individuals, and said to them it'd be good to get a Nigerian team buying a football club. We were talking about doing matches out in Nigeria, various other conversations came out of it, and one of them was to buy a football club," he said.

 

"When it became clear that Newcastle was up for sale, that's when I suggested it to them, and they said fantastic idea, we'll go and raise the money."

 

Nathaniel said he hoped the deal could create opportunities for young talent in Africa's most populous nation by using one of the local teams as a feeder club to Newcastle. Owning a Premier League club would also be a huge status symbol.

 

"It's a chance for Nigerians to do an Abramovich," said one Lagos-based banker, referring to high-profile Chelsea owner and Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich.

 

Nathaniel said the businessmen involved had requested anonymity until the deal went through.

 

"They're used to whatever they go for they get, and they don't want to be seen as failing in their country if they don't manage to secure this deal," he said.

[Ketsbaia 0]

I'm still not sure, but the news coming out of the club today tells me something needs doing ASAP.

[Hadrian 0]

nigerian bid is bullshit i reckon , seems to me there is already another consortium in talks with mike , dont think he would entertain these nigerians.

[Happy Face 29]

"I've been told the money is there in Nigeria but I need to see evidence of it here before we can present it to the club."

 

 

The money is in my account and awaiting transfer, all I need are your bank details and your mothers maiden name to transfer £350M to you in the UK.

[JawD 99]

"I've been told the money is there in Nigeria but I need to see evidence of it here before we can present it to the club."

 

 

The money is in my account and awaiting transfer, all I need are your bank details and your mothers maiden name to transfer £350M to you in the UK.

 

Has to be bollocks man why would they pay so much?

[Kid Dynamite 7034]

The bid was rumoured to be £200odd million elsewhere. Doesnt look like they have much business sense if they are bidding anywhere near his supposed asking price!

 

I hope the guys have enough money to use the club as a toy ala abramovich, rather than try to run it as a viable business. Or else we could be back to square one in another 6 months

[JawD 99]

If they are "trying" to get £350M I doubt they have money to burn. Its not about getting someone to have it as a toy imo, just someone who wants the best for the club by making it a success. Not selling talent and relying on a paper thin squad with young kids. Not ripping off the fans and so on.

[trophyshy 7083]

This could be a disaster to make the Kashley year look like nirvana... corruption, money laundering, bad players forced upon us, international fraud investigation, full scale audit, ring dings, winding up, end of the toon as we know it.

 

Have a great weekend!

[Fop 1]

If they are "trying" to get £350M I doubt they have money to burn. Its not about getting someone to have it as a toy imo, just someone who wants the best for the club by making it a success. Not selling talent and relying on a paper thin squad with young kids. Not ripping off the fans and so on.

 

To be honest I don't want anyone daft enough to pay more than £250m for the club to be running the club.

[Geordie Boyo 24]

This could be a disaster to make the Kashley year look like nirvana... corruption, money laundering, bad players forced upon us, international fraud investigation, full scale audit, ring dings, winding up, end of the toon as we know it.

 

Have a great weekend!

 

 

Was it just me who read that in a Terry Tibbs voice

[Matt 0]

My personal opinion is that this is total bullshit. NVA come out and say they need another £50m- why? If they have £350m already then that will easily buy NUFC sooner or later. It seems a bizarre way to approach the deal. If the majority of the money came so easily- why the difficulty in finding the last drops?

 

IMO the bid will founder on some spurious technicality with NVA management having very nicely gained a lot of free publicity.

 

Just as likely, this is the equivalent of getting your mate to bid on ebay to get the price up on something you're selling.

[spongebob toonpants 3997]

My personal opinion is that this is total bullshit. NVA come out and say they need another £50m- why? If they have £350m already then that will easily buy NUFC sooner or later. It seems a bizarre way to approach the deal. If the majority of the money came so easily- why the difficulty in finding the last drops?

 

IMO the bid will founder on some spurious technicality with NVA management having very nicely gained a lot of free publicity.

 

Just as likely, this is the equivalent of getting your mate to bid on ebay to get the price up on something you're selling.

 

 

 

I was assuming it was including a transfer kitty. Just having the money to buy the club and none to run it wouldnt make much sense

[Matt 0]

My personal opinion is that this is total bullshit. NVA come out and say they need another £50m- why? If they have £350m already then that will easily buy NUFC sooner or later. It seems a bizarre way to approach the deal. If the majority of the money came so easily- why the difficulty in finding the last drops?

 

IMO the bid will founder on some spurious technicality with NVA management having very nicely gained a lot of free publicity.

 

Just as likely, this is the equivalent of getting your mate to bid on ebay to get the price up on something you're selling.

 

 

 

I was assuming it was including a transfer kitty. Just having the money to buy the club and none to run it wouldnt make much sense

 

 

If that's their approach, then I hope someone else comes in and buys the club. You cant just base a bid around how many faceless millionaires you get around the table. It's unworkable- and the sort of situation we're best away from.

[Ketsbaia 0]

My personal opinion is that this is total bullshit. NVA come out and say they need another £50m- why? If they have £350m already then that will easily buy NUFC sooner or later. It seems a bizarre way to approach the deal. If the majority of the money came so easily- why the difficulty in finding the last drops?

 

IMO the bid will founder on some spurious technicality with NVA management having very nicely gained a lot of free publicity.

 

Just as likely, this is the equivalent of getting your mate to bid on ebay to get the price up on something you're selling.

 

The only thing I can keep thinking back to is the Mackem bid. It seemed to rely on ridicuolously stingy funding from Irish businessmen who were in, out, in, out and back in again before it got done.

[Matt 0]

The only thing I can keep thinking back to is the Mackem bid. It seemed to rely on ridicuolously stingy funding from Irish businessmen who were in, out, in, out and back in again before it got done.

 

That was for £40m or something though, wasn't it? This is a whole different ball game numbers wise.

 

The club has been valued at around £200m. This is only going to go one way form here.

[Ketsbaia 0]

The only thing I can keep thinking back to is the Mackem bid. It seemed to rely on ridicuolously stingy funding from Irish businessmen who were in, out, in, out and back in again before it got done.

 

That was for £40m or something though, wasn't it? This is a whole different ball game numbers wise.

 

The club has been valued at around £200m. This is only going to go one way form here.

 

£10 million. And the whole thing fell to bits more than Humpty Dumpty after a tumble off a rather big ledge before Niall Quinn got out his UHU Glu and stuck the cunts back together.

[Fop 1]

The only thing I can keep thinking back to is the Mackem bid. It seemed to rely on ridicuolously stingy funding from Irish businessmen who were in, out, in, out and back in again before it got done.

 

That was for £40m or something though, wasn't it? This is a whole different ball game numbers wise.

 

The club has been valued at around £200m. This is only going to go one way form here.

 

 

I really don't want to see any investors paying more than £200-250m for the club, both because I don't want to see Ashley and Co walk away with a huge profit for an abortion, but also because whatever is paid into the club becomes unavailable to be spent on the club.

 

 

Even if they have bags of cash paying £100-280m more than the club is worth makes them idiots and I don't want another load of fools at the helm.

[I R Toon Fan 0]

Did they film that at my nans house?

 

Not sure what to think at the moment. We'll see.

[JawD 99]

The Nigerian consortium hoping to buy Newcastle United has told the BBC that it has presented its bid to the club.

 

The group is one of several thought to be interested, but is the first to announce it has tabled an offer.

 

The man fronting the bid, UK-based businessman Chris Nathaniel, refused to confirm the size of the offer.

 

"We can't at this stage, that's confidential between ourselves and Newcastle, but a bid was put in on Friday evening," he said.

 

"There's been no timeline given by Newcastle but we hope it will be sometime soon."

 

Previous reports suggested the Nigerian group had raised £350 million and was looking to increase that figure.

 

Newcastle United's owner Mike Ashley put the club up for sale in the wake of the sudden departure of former manager Kevin Keegan, but has insisted he will hold out for the right price.

 

But Nathaniel told the BBC's African sports programme Fast Track that the Nigerian group would not get involved in a bidding war.

 

"What they don't want to do is spend a load of money to buy the club and have no money to buy players and to work on what is a quite a troubled infrastructure," he said.

 

The identities of the people behind the deal remain a closely guarded secret, and Nathaniel said they wanted to remain anonymous until their bid is accepted.

 

A spokesman for Newcastle United said the club had no comment to make.

 

Beeb