Hollywood-based Group Involved in Everton Takeover Talks

There have been a number of groups that have shown interest in Everton in recent months, and the latest one to initiate conversations with the majority shareowner Farhad Moshiri is the most glamorous one yet, led by two Hollywood executive producers.

The special purpose acquisition company LAMF Global Ventures Corp. I was founded by Jeffrey Soros and Simon Horsman, both film and television producers based in Los Angeles, USA. And if the last name of the former sounds a tad bit familiar, it’s because he is the nephew of businessman and philanthropist George Soros, who is more well-known in political circles for his support of the Democratic party in the United States. Horsman is well-known in his own right as a bigtime lawyer involved with a number of media and technology companies.

Neither Moshiri’s camp nor LAMF confirmed or denied the report in Bloomberg, with the article’s sources claiming that negotiations are ongoing between the Toffees and the company incorporated in the Cayman Islands but with a business address listed on the glitzy Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.

LAMF is what is called in business parlance a ‘special purpose acquisition company’ (SPAC) formed late last year and raised $253 million (£224m) in their initial public offering (IPO). Also listed as a senior adviser in the company is a former club director Keith Harris.

The Toffees rumoured price tag is about £500m, not considering the development and construction costs of the new stadium at the Bramley-Moore docks which is considered to be about the same amount over again.

Currently nine Premier League clubs are owned by US-based individuals or companies, and the growing stability of the sterling pound as well as the lucrative payouts especially from TV deals are attracting more and more attention across the pond, especially with Russian oligarchs now blackballed from most Western economies.

Just last week reports emerged that Minnesota-based real estate tycoon Maciek Kaminski was involved in talks with Moshiri’s camp about a takeover, months after a group Kaminski was involved in had gone through similar deliberations.

Soros and Horsman have worked together on a number of film and television projects, including sports features like Legacy: The True Story of the LA Lakers and Ronaldinho: The Happiest Man in the World.