Alisher Usmanov has bought the 50% share of Red & White Holdings Ltd owned by business partner Ardavan Farhad Moshiri, thought to be worth around £200 million.
It means the Uzbek-born billionaire is now the outright owner of the 18,695 shares that make up Red & White’s 30.04% stake in Arsenal.
Interestingly, it looks as though Moshiri’s decision to sell has been driven by a desire to purchase Everton.
The Telegraph report this morning that Moshiri will redirect the funds received from Usmanov to seal a deal for the Merseyside club under the noses of proposed investors from America.
A statement released by Red and White on Friday reads: “Red & White Holdings Limited (“Red & White”) today announces that Mr Alisher Usmanov has purchased Mr Farhad Moshiri’s stake in Red & White and as a result Mr Usmanov now owns 100 per cent of Red & White, which represents 18,695 shares or 30.04% in Arsenal Holdings plc (“Arsenal”).”
In the statement, Usmanov said: “In line with my previously stated objective, I can confirm that I have purchased the whole stake of Farhad Moshiri, thereby increasing my holding in Arsenal to over 30 per cent and securing my position as the second largest shareholder.
“I am committed to Arsenal and I will proudly retain my holding as a long-term investment for myself and my family to enjoy and benefit for generations to come. I want the absolute best for Arsenal and am prepared to do whatever is necessary to ensure the success of the club.”
What does all of the above mean for Arsenal? Well nothing really changes on the boardroom front at the Emirates. Usmanov, who bought David Dein’s chunk of shares in 2007 for around £75 million, still doesn’t have a say on the day-to-day running of the club.
Does passing the 30% threshold not compel Usmanov to make an offer on the rest of the shares like Kroenke had to when he passed 30%, or was that ruling only for Kroenke?
Red & White Ltd owned and still owns the 30.04% as an independent legal entity – so nothing has changed. The fact that Usmanov now owns 100% of R&W rather than 50% (which I was surprised to learn; assumed at least 80/20) is effectively an internal R&W matter.
He wouldn’t be forced to buy the rest of the shares as there is already a majority shareholder in place. But I’ve better things to do with my Saturday than look up Premier League laws!
the BPL have already ruled that R&W are clearly rivals to KSE and so are entitled to no access to the workings of the club and its finances, and as KSE have 67% and any bid for its shares is not being sought, then R&W do not have to bid for all shares. (the BPL clearly understand the two sides are rivals and are not like the usual make up of shareholders when someone being allowed to get 30% of shares would mean they were part of the group running the club)
How i wish Usmanov will get the opportunity to buy Kroenke shares outrightly. The man Kroenke is not a football lover nor an Arsenal fan and only in Arsenal for financial gains. We really need an owner that has the same football passion like the Arsenal fans. Without such person in the helm of affairs of our beloved Arsenal football club, it remain one story after the other each year as we have been having it for the past 10 years.
Nooooooooooooooo
We are not Chelsea
Kroenke is no good? Well, Usmanov is worst
Takeover Panel has other ideas
TWO billionaire owners. No shortage of money to buy whichever player amused us.
Yeah man, no complaints, what with El Nenny firing us to the title.
El Nanny?? 🙂
Pretty clear Jabba The Hutt doesn’t give a shit about fortunes on the pitch as long as the club’s share value keeps increasing. Even his famous, BS open letters have stopped. Saddled with him and Kroenke: sad bloody times.
He looks like the kind of guy that drives around with a body on the trunk of his car.
He looks like the kind of guy who drives round with a trunk round his body.
Tbf Kroenke looks like that too.
Kroenke looks like the corpse in the trunk
Based on what he’s said in the past, he’d do a hell of a lot more than Kroenke if he actually had the power to do so. Usmanov doesn’t get a say in anything really. Would much rather Usmanov thab Kroenke. Usmanov would likely push for more on-field success and put pressure on Wenger to build a better squad. Kroenke just bought the club to satisfy his own ego and fund his purchases of Texan ranches. Why so many of the previous shareholders sold to a man who has no interest in on-field success bar the annual Champions League qualification… Read more »
Yeah, why would shareholders sell to someone they don’t like?
Hmm, that’s a real my$tery.
They sell shares to convert them to cash. Not to appease people they like or don’t like
Fully agree with you
Atleast he’s a fan of football unlike Kronke who is clueless. He’ll demand instant success and is is prepared to spend whatever it takes. I’m personally not a massive fan of foreign ownership but he is certainly the lesser of two evils.
Do some basic research on him ya cheezel.
I don’t care!
lol, cheezel. Agreed though. Baron Greenback can feck off.
Maybe that can be a topic for discussion at your next EDL meeting or Flat Earth Society gala.
EDL? You know nothing about my background. Shouldn’t be on a football blog making such an ignorant comment.
Think you got that one all wrong -he just declared his intention for the shares to stay with his family “for generations to cone….”….that’s long term interest…..and it means he won’t actually get any return on a growth in the share price in his lifetime…
And you believe him?
“I want the absolute best for Arsenal and am prepared to do whatever is necessary to ensure the success of the club.”
Buy us a striker and a winger mate?
I’m sure he would if he could!
The problem is that I think that his definition of “success” is top four! 🙁
As a shareholder, there is nothing stopping him saying ‘here’s X amount of money to go on transfers’. He will feel he has been hard done-by and won’t want to let Stan benefit, so won’t plow money into the club.
Uh he’s offered several times to add 75 million to the club and always been rejected.
He’s also there are most home games, unlike Silent Stan who shows up maybe 5 times a year.
I’m not saying he’s a great guy or our savior or anything but it’s wrong to suggest he’s only in it for the money the way that Kroenke undoubtedly is.
He’s offered money with strings attached.
The club would never reject a genuine gift.
What’s stopping him?
It sounded a bit more sinister than that, to me at least. He just cranked up the Bond Villain gauge to 9.
Why doesn’t he just for example – say here wenger’s here 30 million of eg a d m. Which Arsene can’ has to use ?
Spurs Joe Lewis or another spud ( I don’t know all them idiots names) put up so many millions to buy a player the other season ( Harry r years) and they bought a player. He wasn’t major shareholder . So why can’t we do it…..?
You lost me at “eg a d m”…
Sorry wenger here is 30 million use it to buy a defensive midfielder , if you were being satirical as wenger would understand the need for such a player – I did chuckle
You think we should get rid of Coquelin and not try Elneny ?
I do like a bit of satire – it helps at stressful times like these!
A former player proudly said so on the radio. It wasn’t a chairman just a rich man with a few shares
Are you sure it wasn’t Liverpool’s/United’s former player, because that sounds a lot like Michael Owen.
Any money he has paid for shares is an investment for him. He’s not asking to put money into a transfer pot that he would presumably not see again. If he did ask his offer would presumably be turned down. The only one who could put money in a transfer pot is Kronke and he’s taking money out of the club not putting it in. Neither of these 2 bleeders is doing anything for Arsenal football club. Neither are fans and we should hold them with the contempt they deserve.
there is actually nothing stopping Usmanov putting money into the clubs transfer pot, if he actually wanted to. there are no rules against it
Yes there is. The majority shareholder won’t allow it.
no he has not, Usmanov has never offered the club money for transfers, in fact he has not offered the club money for anything.
Sorry, but…naive post….Usmanov has, in spite of his ownership, been kept completely out of influence -why ON EARTH should he throw money in for others to play with??
Couldn’t have said it better @danishgooner.
Why should he waste his money on the club when he’s being kept out of its affairs??
Kroenke is worst than Usmanov…end of story.
sounds like we’ve re-invented the cold war
And Usmanov is on record as saying the first thing he would do is pay a dividend. That is money out. These people don’t become billionaires by accident. Stop looking at the man as if he’s some kind of knight in shining armour. Nobody grew up in Uzbekistan in the 60’s dreaming of Arsenal….
That last line sums it up beautifully.
Usmanov is prickly. You’d probably be a mite prickly yourself in his shoes, excluded from the boardroom and seeing banners displayed in the Emirates saying ‘Arsenal Hates Usmanov’ (not one of Red Action’s finest moments). Shut out and insulted by the club you part-own, the very least you’d feel you should get would be a few measly dividends. Kroenke after all takes dividends in addition to his salary and expenses; it’s just that the 3m he’s removing each year isn’t called dividends but ‘payment for services’. When asked by the AST what these services were, Gazidis was unable to answer.… Read more »
I grew up in Africa in the sixties dreaming of The Arsenal.
Perhaps you found yourself here with your parents on some missionary duty?
An Aubameyang would be nice.
If Peter Griffin was a rich businessman…
Nyehehehehehe
It’s a shame that it means nothing, to be honest I really hope it would at some stage, it’s clear the American is only interested in making money and does not really give a care if we win or not, the Russian on the other hand wants to make money but also wants to win, he has said it over and over again that he won’t mind helping arsenal with transfer fees to buy great players, am hoping if anything that this would put us in a position where we can shell out cash for really good players but not… Read more »
if he really wanted to put money towards transfers there is actually nothing stopping him, its nothing more than good PR from him when he spouts what he would do, nothing more than what politicians do in election campaigns, knowing full well that he will not have to actually do what he claims he would do.
No he talks about wanting to win. Yet does nothing but send out ridiculous Comms. If he was serious he could set up a lovely trust fund for Arsenal player purchases. Curiously he is yet to take this course of action.
I wonder why.
“he has said it over and over again that he won’t mind helping arsenal with transfer fees to buy great “.
So that’s the easy but done then. Thing is, how long has he been a significant shareholder? Perhaps he has mislaid his chequebook or is waiting for his recently lost credit card to be replaced.
Alternatively it’s all piss and wind designed to fire up the gullible.
all PR from Usmanov, as they say actions speak louder than words, but his actions belay his words.
And on the topic of his words, we only ever hear from him when things are looking bad, the cheapest PR stunt of them all.
This transaction means nothing to The Arsenal. It is an outside transaction between two members of a separate company. Like Moshiri’s purchase of shares in Everton has nothing to do with The Arsenal
You are so gullible.
As stated, it means very little. Although I think it does mean he can ask for more details of the annual accounts etc, so the only positive thing he can do is get details of the KSE payment which will clear up whether they supply a real service or just get some form of dividend. If it’s the latter then he’ll want one as well!
he is not entitled to anything more, info or otherwise, all he has done is bought out his partner in R&W holdings, and if R&W could not get more info with two shareholders, then R&W with one shareholder is entitled to nothing extra. When will people realize that for both Kroenke and Usmanov, that buying Arsenal shares is an investment, nothing more nothing less, share price is going up, and is very likely to keep going up, so it looks like a very good investment for both of them. The main concern should be if either KSE or R&W sell… Read more »
And when will you notice that owners aren’t all the same? They can be divided, roughly, into two groups: the profiteers (the Glazers, Kroenke, Liverpool’s present and previous lot) and the sugar daddies who are in it, not for money – quite the opposite – but for pleasure, power and prestige. Usmanov and Moshiri, along with Abramovich, the Mansours and PSG’s owner belong to this second group. For them a football club is a plaything and/or a philanthropic vanity project, and far from looking to take money out of the clubs, these owners are pouring it in. The Mansour family,… Read more »
usmanov has said he wants a dividend, this mean him taking money out of the club, he has also stated he sees nothing wrong with how the Glaziers operate. so what makes you think he is a sugar daddy type, his PR comments when AFC are having a bad spell,
Its clear you want AFC to be a plaything for a sugar daddy, while as much as I’m opposed to KSE, I do not want AFC to ever be that.
Let’s call Group 1 the Capitalists, who have made money through the market. They are the reason people have jobs, albeit shitty ones in many cases.
Let’s call Group 2 the Thieves, who have stolen money from their people through corruption. They are the reason old Grannies freeze to death in Winter.
As I said, it means very little but I’m pretty sure owning over 30% does give him more right to information. But that’s about all it does.
I get the contempt towards these oligarchs to a degree but what I don’t get is when fans claim they don’t care if we win on the pitch, only how much money we make. Well let’s point out the obvious shall we… If we don’t do well on the pitch then we don’t earn a much money as a club. Qualification for UCL, the position we finish in and the style of football we play are all important factors in attracting big players, big sponsors and drawing in fans which increases our value and of course our profits so OF… Read more »
spot on rob, this notion that the majority shareholder does not want the club to have success is as ridiculous as those that put it forward, its a totally bullshit soundbite rolled out by those that clearly have no understanding of business and how the growth of the business and its worth, is tied to the success of the product, in this case the team.
Qualification for UCL is not success. Winning it is. Finishing 4th is not success, finishing 1st is. Style of football goes hand in hand with success. The bottom line is finishing 4th and the odd FA Cup is fine with the owner. And he hasn’t had to put a penny into the club to take 6 million out on top of what his shares are worth now compared to whaT he paid for them.
No fan has ever said they don’t care about results. Some of us have been around long enough to be realistic about results and know that long term our average results will be better if the club is financially wealthy (all the big teams are).
We could go back to the win or bust days of Neill, Howe or Graham or before but I can tell you that having the odd mid-table season is much more depressing than our results now.
This guy can’t be worse than Silent Sam. I reckon he’d actually invest proper money in the team. I love Arsenal but every one of us knew we were still lacking a striker/winger and a DM at the beginning of the year. Elneny looks a solid purchase, but we only did that because of the injuries.
Kroenke’s too busy moving his NFL team and buying a ranch about the size of Texas to really care or have time for Arsenal…
you show a real lack of understanding of how football clubs are run, the majority shareholder does not need to have any day to day hands on interest in the club, we have a massive full time staff that runs the club, and its the CEO Ivan Gazidis who is in charge of the day to day business. And then you have the staff that is in charge of the actual football, which is headed by Wenger. also would point out that the club would have and indeed has a long term strategy and business plan, that means the staff… Read more »
Who is Silent Sam?
I think we should be told…..
No, of course his 30+ percent stake doesn’t give him to any say in the club. Allowing a co-owner a seat on the board would threaten Kroenke’s control. Suppose he needed to leverage Arsenal to prop up or expand another branch of his empire and Usmanov was against exploiting Arsenal for the benefit of KSE as a whole? Suppose Usmanov took exception to the annual 3m donation we make to the Kroenke family and believed that any cash surplus should be invested in players or used to subsidise the abandoned unprofitable fan-share, for instance? Kroenke bought us as a safe… Read more »
clearly you don’t know much about maths, or about how usmanov could do fuck all to stop any of the nonsense scenarios you have put forward, 67% out votes 30% every time. so even if AU was on the board he could not stop stan, on any of the scaremongering ideas you put forward. As stated by others, Usmanov has on several occasions stated his desire for dividends to be paid out, so if he got his way he’d be taking money out of the club. Which is a bit odd when he says he wants to put money in.… Read more »
If only Usmanov could come in and make everything alright.
I also believe in fairies, unicorns and copper bangles for rheumatism.
Dum dum dum dum di-dum dum di-dum
The oil flows through this one.
There are a lot of assumptions and declarations about the intent of both Usmanov and Kroenke on here. But unless someone is at the table, that’s all they are.
However if Moshiri goes on to buy Everton that is one of the three we DO know was just in for the investment.
We’ve bought some beautiful players the last few years.
Moshiri was just in it for the investment? I’d have thought that if that were the case, he’d have stuck with Arsenal. We, after all, are surely a safer place to park capital than Everton where success and profits will demand a considerable injection of cash – first into the stadium, next into the squad. Far more likely he was fed up with being a co-owner but allowed no say in the running of the club. At Everton he’ll be a real owner who’s even – imagine! – permitted to be present at board meetings. I’m delighted for Kenwright who… Read more »
Just announced he’s bought a 49.9% stake in Everton now, trumps having 15.02% of Arsenal.
Really don’t want this guy’s dirty money. We’re better than that. http://bit.ly/1UmhcdG
Don’t care what anyone says, I’d prefer we have Usmanov as our owner than Kroenke. People have said things about Roman and Mansour, but look how far they’ve taken Chelsea and City.
Its been 10nyears since Roman bought chelshit and he hasn’t “gptten tired of his plaything” or whatever.
Kroenke doesn’t give a shit about AFC
If Usamov is such the stand up chap, there’s nothing stopping him from putting his money where his mouth is and offering some cash to buy players at no cost to club. Just saying.
Mr wenger and the chairman must stop believing in top 4 as the winners of ucl
Hitchcocks happy brother! But tbh he wouldnt be any worse than Kroenke. At very least he wouldnt pocket clubs money. Russian sugar daddies dont need money, what they seek is power n popularity. We aint even asking them to bring their money to the club. As far as they dont take it all out as theyre doing right now. All the sky high ticket prices all the profits all the other rivals strengthing year after year. If had a owner who cared with Arsene Wenger we could be up there amoung Barcas n Bayerns… Player like Pogba announce theyre fans… Read more »
Stan doesn’t seem as silent, but then again he is LA with one of his other toys…
http://www.foxsports.com/nfl/story/los-angeles-rams-new-headquarters-thousand-oaks-westlake-village-022516
It’s interesting that so many of you state with such authority the true intentions of both of the men in question… Obviously you must be good friends with them to have such an intimate working knowledge of their thought processes.
No? Oh ok then guess we can move on 😛
Lets just beat the shit out of man u
OK we all read the news papers n watch TV ,& heard what former gooners invincibles players all said wenger must be given the boot,as now he let spurs in the doors ,n looks like only 2 clubs,can win the premier league in 2016,lcfc n spurs,so I like what karl klammer said that 100% arsenal fans wish n pray for wenger to be sacked from his job,not at the end of season, but right now,in early March 2016,wenger has to go for many reasons/adam.