Everton takeover for £400 million reportedly in advanced stages

There had been rumours circulating that there were still talks of a takeover brewing at Everton and now it appears that chatter had been right all along. Yesterday reports emerged that USA-based Maciek Kaminski — the chief executive of Minneapolis-based Talon Real Estate — was in advanced talks with club majority shareowner Farhad Moshiri to purchase the club for £400 million even as the pound continues to devalue drastically by the day.

Earlier this summer, there was a takeover attempt by a group led by Peter Kenyon, who is a former chief executive of Chelsea FC and Manchester United, and most recently led a similar consortium in a failed attempt to purchase Newcastle United. Others in the consortium included Kaminski and John Thornton, a former co-president of Goldman Sachs and currently head of huge mining firm Barrick Gold. They were said to be using American law firm Weil, Gotshal and Manges investment specialist Michael Klein as advisors in their bidas he had previously been the consultant for Sir Martin Broughton’s takeover attempt at Stamford Bridge as well.

Now it appears Kaminski has broken off from that original group and is looking to buy the Blues with his own company. The sources cited by the Financial Times did however indicate that there was no certainty that the purchase would be completed and that talks are still underway. Moshiri owns 94% of the club’s shares and has taken to issuing statements on the club website in the past to say that he is not looking to sell the Blues.

We’d even heard then that the group were willing to meet Moshiri’s £1 billion valuation for the club, including the new stadium that is one year into a three-year build at the Bramley-Moore dock. The final purchase price according to the report will depend on the financing of the new stadium, which could bring the amount closer to the Iranian businessman’s original asking price.

A Polish native, Kaminski’s fortune has come from the corporate real estate world based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The purchase would be conducted by the family-owned KAM Sports group, which on its website claims that it’s premise is to “own and manage premier international sports assets”.

The representatives of both Moshiri and Kaminski are yet to comment on this story.