MSP Closing in on Investment Deal with Everton Owner Farhad Moshiri
Key Highlights :
The long-awaited saga of investment into Everton Football Club is finally heading towards a positive conclusion, with paperwork filed in the US providing some clarity on the issue. Owner Farhad Moshiri has been in talks with New York-based investment fund MSP Sports Capital since the beginning of the year, with co-founders Jahm Najafi and Jeffrey Moorad, along with vice-president Peter Taylor, visiting Goodison Park for the defeat by Southampton back in January.
The investment into the club is sought to aid the funding of the stadium build at Bramley Moore Dock, with MSP understood to be acquiring a 25 per cent stake in the club through a preferential share structure, which are loans with warrants that can be converted into equity further down the line, with the initial sum thought to be around £100m.
Last week saw the exit of CEO Denise Barrett-Baxendale, finance director Grant Ingles and non-executive director Graham Sharp from the Toffees’ board. On Friday, paperwork was filed with the United States Securities and Exchange commission, dated June 20, showing that a newly-formed company, MSP EFC Investors LC, had raised $165.5m (£130.2m), a figure higher than first anticipated, from a pool of 13 investors.
The SEC ‘Form D’ filing is a considerable development and points to the announcement of a deal being imminent. A Form D must be filed within 15 days of the sale of securities with the date of first sale being the date on which the investor is ‘irrevocably contractually committed to invest’. Moorad was the signatory on the Form D, with MSP EFC Investors GP LLC, MSP Sports Advisors LLC, Najafi and Moorad all named as related parties.
MSP have previously taken on investments where they have significant operational control, and while Moshiri will retain his majority shareholding with the Toffees, and there is no suggestion that a full buyout will take place further down the road, the size of the investment, which isn’t much smaller than the one that MSP concluded with the McLaren Formula One racing team in 2020, suggests that there will be operational influence at board level and the kind of change that many supporters have been campaigning for.
The identity of the pool of 13 investors is not known, but MSP are an investment firm who seek growth opportunities with capital raised from many parties. The control remains with MSP around how to best use the capital and how to make their investments see long-term gains.
The recent changes to the boardroom at Goodison Park have been made in anticipation of the investment arriving, with MSP likely to seek at least two seats on the board when the deal is concluded. With the paperwork filed in the US, it seems that the investment into Everton is close to being finalised, and it could be a major step forward for the club in their pursuit of the new stadium and other ambitions.
