Ashley mum on offer, Saudis may revive bid
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LONDON • Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley has not responded to the Bellagraph Nova (BN) Group's £280 million (S$503 million) bid to buy the English Premier League club, reported South Tyneside daily The Shields Gazette on Saturday.
The Paris-based company had declared that its co-founders - Singapore entrepreneurs Terence Loh and Nelson Loh as well as Evangeline Shen - "are at an advanced stage of negotiation" for the takeover on Aug 15.
This comes as British daily The Independent reported that there is increasing confidence that the long-running £300 million bid funded by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) could be revived.
The Saudi-led consortium, which included investment firm PCP Capital Partners and British property billionaire brothers David and Simon Reuben, announced its bid in March but there were delays due to the Premier League's owners' and directors' test.
Problems surfaced over pirate broadcasts of Premier League games in Saudi Arabia by state-sponsored rogue network beoutQ and human rights issues, before the group withdrew the bid last month. The collapse centred on their unwillingness to take up the league's offer of independent arbitration to decide the club's ownership.
But according to The Independent, the parties are still working behind the scenes to find a compromise that will allow the deal to take place.
The main obstacle has been the role the Saudi government plays in Newcastle, with the group insisting that PIF does not seek day-to-day involvement.
The Magpies, managed by Steve Bruce, were 13th in the 2019-2020 season and their highest Premier League placings were second in 1995-96 and 1996-97.
Sports Direct chief executive Ashley bought the club for £134 million in 2007 and BN Group is the sixth group linked with a takeover since he officially put the club up for sale in October 2017.
Numerous failed takeover bids include one from a Chinese consortium that very month. Last year, Dubai-based billionaire Sheikh Khaled Zayed Al Nahyan was reportedly a prospective buyer, while former Manchester United director Peter Kenyon's American investment fund GACP Sports was also interested.
