Newcastle United Shareholders Forced To Sell
By Nu Mad
Updated Thursday, 12th July 2007
Mike Ashley is now in the position to buy out every Newcastle United share ... whether stockholders like it or not.
Ashley is now - officially - the owner of Newcastle United.
The retail billlionaire founded Sports World stores in 1982 and, according to the Sunday Times, is the 25th richest person in in the UK with an estimated £1.9 billion fortune.
He is poised to complete his buy-out of club shares after triggering a compulsory purchase of the remaining stock.
St James Holdings Limited, the company owned by the 42-year-old, this morning informed the London Stock Exchange they had reached an agreement to buy just under 95% of the shares before the close of trade yesterday.
They will now activate their option to force the remaining stockholders to sell their outstanding share, with the remaining purchases expected to be completed by the end of next month.
Ashley bought over 40% of shares in May. On June 7 the Newcastle board recommended his takeover and he increased his stake at St James' Park to almost 80% over the following two weeks.
