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Rival clubs could officially block Everton takeover amid £450m twist
John Textor is Farhad Moshiri’s preferred bidder at Everton – but does the American multi-club mogul have the means to get a deal done?
Everton have been stuck in a takeover loop for over a year, with Textor being the third would-be owner to be granted exclusivity by Moshiri.
However, there are a number of major hurdles that Textor must jump before he is able to get ratific꧟ation fr𒐪om the Premier League.
As well as proving he can run the Toffees going forward, he must also offload his 45 per cent stake in Crystal Palace to satisfy the Prem💎ier League’s conflict of interest rules.
Textor is also juggling how to get to grips with Everton’s debt situation, not to mention his ambitions to list his multi-club vehicle Eagle F⛦ootball Group on t๊he New York Stock Exchange.
To explore the latest with the Everton takeover psychodrama, TBR Football spoke exclusively to Liverpool University football finance lecturer and Pric🌼e of Football author Kieran Maguire.
Can Textor afford to service Everton’s debt?
Most analysis suggests that any new owner would ne🐬ed to inject about £450m to meet the 🍎club’s needs and get it running on an even keel once more.
It is expected that through the NYSE IPO, money raised from banks and the sale of his Palace sha💙res, Textor could rai🍸se that amount.
“I think that is enough to going forward, except the elephant in the room is that the Friedkin Group has lent around £200m to Everton and that is due for repayment in 2025,” said Maguire.
“They will likely say they are willing to renegotiate provided that the interest rate is beneficial to them.
“If this can provide additional working capital that’s good. But if it is adding to the overall level of debt, you have to be concerned about whether there is a longer-term strategy with regards to repayment.
“They are generated less than £1m in terms of matchday income. That should be addressed to a certain extent with the move to Bramley Moore Dock, but it is not going to be a cure-all.
If some of the borrowings have the interest rates we have seen quoted, the interest is significant. You also have to question how they repay the capital linked to those debts as well.
The opportunity off the back of the new stadium for Everton to go in large in the transfer market, which is one area Everton fans have clearly been concerned about, isn’t necessarily going to be solved by the money to the new stadium.
“A lot of that additional money is going to have have to go towards repaying the loans.”
Could a blind-trust arrangement be a workaround for the Premier League’s dual ownership rules?
Textor claims he has submitted a final offer to buy𒁃 out his fellow Palace shareholders but to no avail and is now concentrating all his firepower on Everton.
So far, no one has met Textor’s asking price.
In a previous interview with TBR, Maguire suggested that Textor could get up to £225m for h𒁏is stake in Palace.
But with no buyers forthcoming, some commentators have♔ suggested that his Palace shares could be placed in a blind trust, or that he could trade his equity with💯 one of Everton’s lenders in lieu of repayment.
However, ♎Maguire is not optimistic that this solution would fly with Everton’s peers in theꦺ Premier League.
“We have seen with Jim Ratcliffe and his relationship with Man United and Nice that blind trust arrangements can work.
“But that was with regards to UEFA. The concern would be that in a tighter regulatory environment in the Premier League, there would be a lot of objections from other clubs.
“The rules are pretty clear that you can’t have a link with two clubs. It would therefore have to be something very persuasive from Textor to get the other club owners to go along with this.
“Everyone acts in self-interest. No one wants to see Everton go out of business, I can assure you there are half a dozen clubs at the bottom of the Premier League that want Everton to be in a really awkward position come the end of the season.
“If Everton are relegated, it increases the chances of those clubs staying up by definition.
“We saw a very similar issue when Bury were expelled from League 2. That was on a vote of club owners because it meant only one club gets relegated to the National League, which reduces the chances of their clubs getting relegated by 50 per cent.
“So I think it is highly unlikely that this blind trust arrangement will take place, purely because of other clubs.
If it was a straight-up swap, with Textor swapping his Palace shares in exchange for the debt at Everton in order to take over, you then have banks needing to comply with Premier League ownership rules once they take over at Palace.
“It creates another layer of complexity and bureaucracy.“
Potential interest in Textor’s Crystal Palace shares
If there is no workaround available, then Textor has no option but to sell his Palace shares in the⛄ traditional ꧒manner.
But how big is🔴 the market for a minorit♑y stake in a club like Palace?
“There is less interest in Premier League clubs simply because there are fewer clubs to buy,” said Maguire.
“What we have seen over the last five or six years is a huge increase in private wealth in the United States.
“As a result we have individuals or groups who have too much cash and they don’t know what to do with it.
“Those investments that are sure-fire have already been secured and the price of these companies has gone up and up. That has made them very expensive.
“The NFL has just announced that it will allow private equity. And the average price of an NFL side has now gone up to $5bn.
“So if you’re looking for a cheaper alternative, a Premier League club is still ‘fun money’ for these people.
“Outside of the Big Six, you have what look like bargain basement prices that are an awful lot of fun.
“Private collective wealth I think are still interested in the Premier League. The initial huge wave of interested has perhaps subsided somewhat after investors have seen what’s happened at Chelsea and Wrexham and so on.
