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John Textor is considering giving Everton fans the chance to buy shares in the club if he succeeds in his £600million bid to take over from Farhad Moshiri.
The American businessman is preparing to float his holding company Eagle Football Group, which owns Lyon, Botafogo in Brazil and Belgian club RWD Molenbeek, and which owns 45% of Crystal Palace, on the New York Stock Exchange, and sources close to Textor have told the Guardian that Everton could be floated at a later date.
Textor is confident that an agreement with Moshiri over the Everton takeover can be reached within four weeks after he was granted exclusive negotiating rights last month. However, the 58-year-old has yet to sell his stake in Palace, so Premier League approval could take much longer to secure.
Textor plans to use his money and that of several unknown partners to finance the purchase of Everton before integrating the club into Eagle Football. Everton could then go public, which would require approval from the club’s board. While an IPO is rare for Premier League clubs, Manchester United and Tottenhem are listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and Arsenal shares are available for purchase on the ISDX market.
Eagle Football is set to float this month, with Textor seeking to raise around £400m. Lyon has debts of £325m which Textor refinanced last year.
A source familiar with the process said Textor had been preparing to float for some time and the addition of a Premier League club to the group would make Eagle shares much more attractive to potential investors.
Textor’s bid for Everton is complicated by the tug-of-war within the Palace board, as he has been unable to sell his shares despite marketing them through the Raine Group since February. Negotiations with fellow shareholders Josh Harris and David Blitzer have yet to reach an agreement, and Textor’s offer to buy them out last month was also rejected.
Textor is the fifth player to enter into an exclusive deal with Moshiri after Kaminski Group, MSP Capital, 777 Partners and Friedkin Group, with previous offers having failed. Textor has agreed to cover Everton’s debts, which are in excess of £600m, and pay Moshiri an exit fee that could rise to £50m over the next five years, depending on the club’s footballing and financial performance.
Textor declined to comment.
