£500m Amanda Staveley solution mooted as John Textor targets Sheffield Wednesday takeover partner

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As talk intensifies around John Textor’s potential takeover at Sheffield Wednesday, EFL Analysis looks into how that move could work and who would jump on board as part of the consortium.

Ask most Sheffield Wednesday fans about John Textor and they’ll tell you they’d love to see the US businessman swoop in and save their club from the clutches of Dejphon Chansiri.

This summer we’ve seen the Owls fall into a financial crisis that has led to transfer embargoes, mass player departures, the exit of Danny Rohl, and potentially even more punishments like points deductions.

We’ve previously revealed that Textor’s interest in Sheffield Wednesday is genuine and that he has been doing his homework on the club by consulting with those he trusts in the English game.

The latest report on that situation suggests Keith Harris would join Textor, after failing to buy Everton. Now, EFL Analysis has been able to break down the complexities around the status of this proposed takeover and how it would all play out.

• READ MORE: John Textor breaks silence on ‘interest’ in Sheffield Wednesday takeover from Dejphon Chansiri

What are John Textor’s plans for Sheffield Wednesday?

We spoke to our resident football finance expert Adam Williams about what exactly he believes Textor’s plans are for Sheffield Wednesday, and how he might be able to fund such a move.

He said: “From what we’re hearing, it sounds like Textor is working with Harris to find the funds to buy Wednesday. Sometimes, that might mean they are looking for access to debt. In this case – if what Simon Jordan has hinted at is accurate – it can mean combining your own liquid capital with another investor in exchange for an equity stake in the project.

“Previously, Textor’s Eagle Football Holdings has borrowed about £400m from Ares Management, an American credit firm. Ares would sort of fit the bill on both fronts, as they can provide debt and they are also a football club owner. They have significant stake in Atletico Madrid, though there was some suggestions a few weeks ago that they could reduce their stake.”

On the debts attached to Textor’s ventures, Williams suggested the Botafogo owner is in a steady position after selling his shares in Crystal Palace, but may be unwilling to dive into another club without significant support from elsewhere.

Williams added: “All that said, Eagle Football has significant debt – the figure is somewhere around £900m. And yes, debt isn’t a dirty word in finance. If you have the resources to service the debt, then well-structured loans are actually crucial for growth and the financial health of your company.

“But in Eagle Football’s case, the fact that they are listing the group on the New York Stock Exchange in order to recapitalise a chunk of that debt suggests to me that they are probably unlikely to want to take on too much more. And that would factor in the sale proceeds from Crystal Palace too. The £190m or so that he has raised there will have been incorporated into Eagle’s projections when they were planning the IPO.”

• READ MORE: ‘Win the Premier League’… John Textor makes Sheffield Wednesday comparison to Man City

Who could John Textor partner with to buy Sheffield Wednesday?

Essentially, then, Textor would need to partner up with others in order to make the takeover of Sheffield Wednesday viable. That much was alluded to by Simon Jordan recently, with a hint that an owner of another English club could come on board. But who?

Williams said: “People’s eyes will be immediately drawn to Evangelos Marinakis given the relationship between the two, but that’s a non-starter because of the conflict-of-interest rules.

“So we’re speculating as to who it might be. It could be someone from abroad. If it was someone in the EFL, that would require them to sell their stake in whichever club it is they own before they can invest in Wednesday. That’s another layer of bureaucracy that Wednesday don’t really have time for.

“Or, could it be someone who has recently left a club? Amanda Staveley, for example, wants to get back into football. Her PCP Capital Partners investment firm, which she co-leads with her partner Mehrdad Ghodoussi, recently incorporated a new company on Companies House whose business is described as ‘management consultancy activities’. Staveley grew up not too far from Sheffield too.”

Staveley was previously thought to be looking at Tottenham Hotspur, but that came to nothing. Whether a partnership with Textor could work, though, is another matter.

Williams added: “PCP Capital were in talks with Spurs and had raised £500m for a new football project, but that trail seems to have gone a little cold. But would they work together?

“Staveley and Textor both want to be hands-on, so it would need to be a partnership of equals, rather than one being a passive investor. I’m not sure.”

Of course, all of this could be arbitrary, as the first and most complex hurdle to clear for any investor interested in Sheffield Wednesday is to get past Dejphon Chansiri and his reported £100m valuation of the club.

It has been a bizarre process for Sheffield Wednesday to this point, and we’re not sure the chaos will come to an end any time soon. Hopefully a solution can be found at some point, for the sake of the club, and we will just have to wait and see whether Textor will be the man to save the Owls.