Let's talk business.
By Rebekah Ashby, The Journal, 26th May 2007
The board of Newcastle United has invited billionaire Mike Ashley to a boardroom showdown to thrash out the club's future.
NUFC issued a statement last night - just as the Stock Exchange closed for the weekend - inviting new shareholder Ashley and his team to discuss his offer of £1 a share and his plans for the team.
It is not yet known whether Ashley will accept the invitation, or indeed if current chairman Freddie Shepherd, who is in hospital suffering from a collapsed lung and pneumonia, will be well enough to attend. Analysts say the directors could be seeking to persuade Ashley to raise his offer in return for them recommending other shareholders to accept it.
Andrew Miller, of Barclays Wealth, in Newcastle, said: "The only thing I can suggest they might want to say to him is, `We are not prepared to accept 100p a share, but if you raise your offer, then we'll tell our shareholders to accept it'. "I doubt they will be able to push the price higher and the market is saying that too. "I think it's a bit of a done deal, to be honest, and I can't see what the board can possibly bring out of the hat with Ashley holding so many shares. "I don't even know whether Ashley will be interested in meeting them. "He certainly doesn't have to, but I would have thought they will want to push the deal through as quickly as possible, so it would make sense to meet the board."
He said: "The other scenario is that the board might simply be asking if they still have a job."
The club said it hoped the meeting would take place next week.
The statement said: "The Board of Newcastle United has met to discuss the offer and has requested an early meeting with Mike Ashley and his team and look forward to discussing the offer and his plans for Newcastle United in more detail. It is hoped this meeting will be made in due course."
Sources close to Mike Ashley said on Thursday the retail entrepreneur wasn't expecting "any great difficulty" increasing his shareholding in Newcastle United above the all-important 50% threshold.
Once he held 50% plus one share it would give him day-to-day control of the club as he would hold the majority vote.
Ashley bought the Hall family's 41.6% stake in NUFC for £55m in cash on Wednesday and immediately launched a £133m takeover of St James's Park at 100p per share.
'He'll take us to a new dimension'
Sir John Hall yesterday backed billionaire businessman Mike Ashley to take his beloved club to a "new dimension".
The former chairman, who sold his 41.6% stake in the club to Ashley earlier in the week for £55m, gave the sportswear magnate his blessing yesterday and said he was the right man to take the club forward.
Sir John, who helped guide the club from the brink of relegation to the top of the Premiership and brought Kevin Keegan and Alan Shearer to Newcastle, said he had a lot in common with the entrepreneur bidding to takeover the club for £133m.
He said: "It has been a rollercoaster ride and I feel I think I have done the best thing, but one can never tell. "I'm 74 now and basically I have felt for some time that the family needs to take new directions and move on to other things. I feel basically that Mike Ashley's team are the right ones. He's a self-made man, a very, very hard worker and a nice chap. "He knows sport and he has built his business out of a small room of a house while he was in his early 20s. He's 42 now and look at what he has done. They know the business and his team know the business and some of his team know Newcastle very well and he will take us, in my view, to a new dimension."
Greed jibe over golden handshake
Newcastle United fans last night accused chairman Freddie Shepherd of being "unashamedly greedy" over a clause in his contract worth almost £1m if he loses his job.
Shepherd, currently in Newcastle's Freeman Hospital after suffering a collapsed lung, stands to make an estimated £30m if he sells his stake in the club to Mike Ashley. But it has emerged he will make an additional £922,000 if he is ousted as chairman.
Last night, fans and supporters' groups said they hoped Shepherd would step aside as soon as possible and described the clause as "obscene". The clause is also in vice-chairman Douglas Hall's contract and worth more than £600,000.
Frank Gilmour, chairman of Newcastle United Independent Supporters' Association, said: "It's the first I've heard of it. "I think chairmen having a clause in their contract for a big payout when they get sacked is obscene. It's like getting rewarded for failure. "Shepherd has done good things for the club and bad things. But it is definitely time for him to go."
The Mag editor Mark Jensen said: "I was already aware a clause existed in his contract, but I don't think it'll increase his popularity with the fans. "I only hope he goes as soon as possible, so the club can move forward. It's definitely time for him to step aside."
But Player Inc editor Steve Wraith said he did not hold anything against Shepherd and believed any fan would do the same. He said: "I wouldn't expect anything else. Shepherd is a businessman and he is not daft where his finances are concerned. If it's in his contract in black and white, let's pay him the money, so he leaves.
Michael Hodgson, of blackand-whiteforever.com, said: "It seems unashamedly greed to me. Even at the bitter end he's determined to make money out of the club."
A Newcastle United plc spokesman said: "This is all publicly disclosed information contained in the annual report for 2006. It applies to both Mr Shepherd and Mr Douglas Hall's contracts."
Nufcmismanagement view:
This may be the beginning of the end for Freddy Shepherd and his fellow directors, fingers crossed.