Crystal Palace shareholder John Textor and part of Liverpool’s ownership have both tried to acquire shares in Portuguese club Sporting CP in the last 12 months.
That’s according to Record, who provide details on the potential investment by both today, and the efforts made by both parties.
They explain that Textor ‘tried to buy’ a €60m debt owed by Sporting to Novo Banco. He made a proposal to the banking entity worth €60m in order to acquire that debt and other credits.
These are VMOC’s (Mandatory Convertible Securities) bought in 2010 and 2014 and which may be converted into SAD shares until 2026.
His interest is therefore clear, he wanted to buy the VMOC’s and thus secure himself shares in Sporting down the line. If that had happened, he would have eventually owned around 25% of the club, the same amount he tried to get from Benfica.
His offer was not far from what the bank were looking for but was ultimately rejected as the Crystal Palace owner wanted a ‘payment plan’ rather than a straight up transaction.
Information gathered by the newspaper also revealed that Textor had not ‘demonstrated financial availability’ to immediately pay the €60m, hence the phased payment plan idea.
The Crystal Palace man is not the first Premier League based owner to try and secure shares in the club, with Liverpool also involved in November 2021.
The Carlyle fund, or RedBird Capital, a shareholder of Fenway Sports, Liverpool’s owners, made an approach for the club when other VMOC’s were up for sale.
Sporting eventually managed to secure these for themselves at a discount and thus ensure they themselves on 83% of their shares.
They’ve now opened negotiations with Novo Banco to do a similar deal in this instance and beat Textor to the punch after his bid was rejected.
One to keep an eye on for Crystal Palace and Liverpool fans, though.
