Belgravia ends Newcastle Utd bid
By BBC News, 19th January 2007
The Belgravia Group investment fund has said it no longer intends to make an offer for Newcastle United.
Jersey-based Belgravia said that despite protracted negotiations with the club, it had been "unable to agree a price and transaction structure".
It added that it felt its planned offer would have been in the best interests of the club and its supporters.
It is the second firm to end takeover interest in Newcastle this year, after the Polygon hedge fund also pulled out. Future interest However, Belgravia said it did not rule out resurrecting its interest in Newcastle in the future if circumstances changed.
It said it could return with a fresh offer if a recommendation from the Newcastle board was forthcoming, or if a third party announced an offer.
US firm Polygon and its St James' Park Group consortium has also said it could return to make an offer or possible offer for Newcastle if circumstances change.
Belgravia is a private company with interests including construction, hospitality, aviation and sports marketing.
The majority shareholder at Newcastle United is Sir John Hall who, with his son, owns more than 40% of the club.
The other major shareholder is Newcastle chairman Freddy Shepherd, who owns a 28% stake in the football club.
In October 2006, Newcastle United announced a £12m financial loss for the year after heavy investment in players and a fall in revenues as a result of its failure to qualify for Europe.
Nufcmismanagement view:
It looks like another sad day for the supporters of Newcastle United FC, of which we've had many.
This is the second company who have looked at the club and decided that a bid is not going to happen at this time, we have no idea why. We have no idea if they've looked at the books and seen that things are worse than they first thought, or, if our greedy major shareholders want too much money. The Halls and the Shepherds have used this club as a "Cash Cow" for far too long, maybe they've got used to the gravy train that our club has become.
What we do know is that this club has gone from being on the verge of winning the league title under Sir John to where we are today.
Under Shepherd we have become an almost bankrupt company who has massive debt which dwarfs anything that we had under previous chairmen.
Shepherd has taken us backwards both on and off the pitch; we only excel in one area, publicity gaffs.
This egotistical Cumbrian is an embarrassment to everybody associated with the football club and we can’t expect anything to change for the better in this area, a Leopard never changes its spots.
What the future holds for Newcastle United is unpredictable, we’re skint, we’re struggling on the pitch, we have a second rate manager and a chairman who has consistently failed to steer the club in the right direction, the future looks anything but bright, a dark shadow hangs over our club, that is the shadow of Shepherd.
Maybe the only thing we can now do is let Shepherd know what we feel about him, maybe calls of “Shepherd Out” need to be heard at St James’ Park so that this incompetent fool knows exactly what we think about him.
This is “Another fine mess.”
Shepherd Out