St James Holdings

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St James Holdings Limited is a company set up by tycoon Mike Ashley, specifically to acquire shares of Newcastle United Football Club. The company name is a reference to St James' Park, the stadium of Newcastle United.

Contents

[edit] Newcastle Takeover Bid

[edit] May 23 2007

On 23 May 2007 English businessman Mike Ashley bought John Hall's stake in the club of 41.6% for £55m and then launched a formal takeover bid at 100p per share, On 23 May 2007, Ashley bought 41.6% of Newcastle United F.C (Sir John Hall's stake) at one pound per share, for a total cost of £55,342,223[1].This was a 14% rise on the price at closing on the London Stock Exchange the day before. Chairman Freddy Shepherd, who was in hospital at the time of the bid suffering from a punctured lung, said that he planned to fight the takeover and not allow Mike Ashley to get his hands on his 29.8%.

Under the terms of UK takeover law, having purchased more than 30% of a listed company, he is obliged to make an offer to buy the remaining shares at the same or a greater price.[1]

[edit] May 31 2007

On 31 May it was reported that the Newcastle board were considering Ashley's offer.[2]

It is widely believed that Mike Ashley now owns around a 54% stake in the club meaning that Freddy Shepherd's 29.8% is now useless and he can be removed from his position as chairman by the new majority shareholders.[citation needed]

[edit] June 7 2007

On the 7 June 2007 Freddy Shepherd and Shepherd Offshore Services Ltd. agreed to sell their stake in Newcastle United and released a statement urging other shareholders to do the same.[3] It was announced that Shepherd would remain in the role of chairman.[4]

[edit] June 15/18 2007

Confirmation came on the 15 June that Mike Ashley and St. James' Holdings had acquired slightly over 77% of the club. This means that Mike Ashley can delist the company from the stock exchange, with the date of 18 July being mentioned in the release.[5]

[edit] June 26 2007

On 26 June 2007, Ashley gained the 90% of shares needed to compulsorily acquire the final 10% of shares. On the same day, directors Bruce Shepherd, Allison Antonopoulos, Tim Revill and Douglas Hall formally resigned from the board and both Chris Mort and Steve Hayward were appointed.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b "Billionaire Ashley launches Newcastle takeover", ESPN.com, 2007-05-23. Retrieved on 2007-05-23. (English) 
  2. ^ "Newcastle consider Ashley offer", BBC Sport, 2007-05-31. Retrieved on 2007-05-31. 
  3. ^ "Ashley to take over Newcastle Utd", BBC News, bbc.co.uk, 2007-06-07. Retrieved on 2007-06-17. "Billionaire businessman Mike Ashley is set to take control of Newcastle United after chairman Freddy Shepherd agreed to sell his 28% stake in the club. Mr Ashley, who runs the Sportsworld chain and Lillywhites, is to pay £37.6m for the shares - a move that values the club at £131m... The Newcastle United board has urged other shareholders to accept Mr Ashley's 101 pence-per-share offer." 
  4. ^ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Shepherdchairman
  5. ^ "Ashley boosts stake in Newcastle", BBC News, bbc.co.uk, 2007-06-15. Retrieved on 2007-06-17. "Billionaire businessman Mike Ashley is on course to withdraw football club Newcastle United from the stock market after lifting his stake to 77.06%... The cancellation of Newcastle's listing is expected to take place on 18 July." 

[edit] External links

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