Arsenal Ownership Remains Wish for Richest
African After Rebuff
by Paul Wallace
Africa's richest man, Aliko Dangote, said he still
wants to buy English Premier League soccer team
Arsenal even after he was rebuffed by its owners in
2010.
Nigeria's Dangote, an Arsenal fan worth $15.7
billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires
Index, discussed buying a stake in the club five
years ago before talks with the owners fell through,
he said. Since then his wealth has grown more
than sevenfold.
"I still hope, one day at the right price, that I'll buy
the team," Dangote, 58, said in an interview as he
traveled on a plane owned by one of his
companies between the Ethiopian capital Addis
Ababa and the Nigerian commercial hub of Lagos
on May 1. "I might buy it, not at a ridiculous price
but a price that the owners won't want to resist. I
know my strategy."
Arsenal is one of England's most successful clubs,
having won 13 top flight league titles in the
country, the most after Manchester United and
Liverpool. Arsenal Holdings Plc., the owner, trades
on the ICAP Securities & Derivatives Exchange, or
ISDX, and is valued at 988 million pounds ($1.49
billion).
A successful bid would make Dangote the first
African owner of a club in a league where
billionaires including Russia's Roman Abramovich,
the owner of Chelsea, and Abu Dhabi's Sheikh
Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan, who controls
Manchester City, have acquired teams.
Stan Kroenke, worth $5.6 billion and owner of the
National Football League's St. Louis Rams, holds
67 percent of Arsenal, according to data compiled
by Bloomberg. Red & White Sec Ltd., controlled by
Uzbek billionaire Alisher Usmanov and Farhad
Moshiri, owns 30 percent.
Cement, Gas
Dan Tolhurst, a spokesman for the London-based
club, declined to comment as did Rollo Head, a
spokesman for Usmanov in London. Tomago
Collins, a spokesman for Kroenke in Denver, did
not immediately respond to e-mails requesting
comment.
Dangote has interests in sugar and flour and
controls Dangote Cement Plc, Nigeria's biggest
publicly traded company. He is investing $11
billion in a 650,000 barrel-a-day oil refinery near
Lagos and as much as $2.5 billion in gas pipelines
running to the city from Nigeria's oil-rich Niger
River delta region.
His wealth has fallen by $2.7 billion this year, the
sixth-most globally, according to the Billionaires Index.
Dangote, who ranks 55th on the index, said he's
too busy with existing projects to mount a bid
now.
"We have $16 billion-worth of investments in the
next few years," he said. "Right now I want to take
my own business to a certain level. Once I finish
on that trajectory, then maybe" an offer will follow.
Limited Success
Most English Premier League matches are
broadcast live in Nigeria, Africa's most populous
country, by Supersport, a satellite television
channel owned by South Africa's Naspers Ltd.
Arsenal won the FA Cup, England's main knockout
tournament, last year, its first major trophy since
2005, and is in the final of the same tournament
this year. Over the last decade London rivals
Chelsea have won the English league four times as
well as the European Champions League and
several other trophies.
Arsene Wenger, who has managed Arsenal since
1996, has been criticized by fans including
Rwanda's President Paul Kagame for the team's
limited success in the last decade. Dangote said
he is often too nervous to watch their games. The
team beat Hull 3-1 on Monday with two goals from
Chilean striker Alexis Sanchez.
While Wenger has managed the club well from a
financial standpoint, he "needs to change his style
a bit," said Dangote. "They need new direction."
source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-04/arsenal-ownership-remains-wish-for-richest-african-after-rebuff
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