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Director Shepherd increases stake in Newcastle By David Owen, Sports Correspondent, in London Published: October 22 2001 19:03 | Last Updated: October 22 2001 19:18

The Shepherd family has increased its stake in Newcastle United in a deal some expect to be a precursor of eventual moves to take the Premier League football club private.

The company said on Monday it had been advised by Freddy Shepherd, one of its directors, that Shepherd Offshore had bought 14.3m Newcastle shares at 30.225p a share - a small discount to last week's 31p closing price.

This took the holding in which Mr Shepherd was interested to 26.1m shares, representing 18 per cent of the company's share capital, and brought to more than 65 per cent the proportion of Newcastle's shares in the hands of the Shepherd and Hall families.

Mr Shepherd, who was on Monday said to have taken his son away on holiday, and Douglas Hall are believed to be keen to take the club private. Hall family interests are understood to own 47.8 per cent of the shares, split between three vehicles: Wynyard (Guernsey) Ltd, Cameron Hall Developments and Cameron Hall Developments Executive Pension Scheme.

The club said on Monday that the question of going private had not been put to the board.

"A large quantity of shares, which might have come onto the market at some time, has been absorbed by an investor we know who is also the chairman of the football club," said John Fender, chairman of Newcastle United plc.

Shepherd Offshore bought its new shares from Premium TV, the wholly-owned subsidiary of NTL, the heavily-indebted cable operator, which has restructured its media partnership with Newcastle United.

That deal, announced last week, will see the creation of a 50:50 joint venture company between the club and Premium, as well as amending the terms of a £25m convertible loan agreement that could in theory have enabled NTL to raise its stake in the club to nearly 20 per cent.

These recent announcements may, in turn, raise questions about NTL's minority stakes in other leading football clubs. The company on Monday confirmed it had small shareholdings in Leicester City and Middlesbrough, as well as a £25m convertible loan with Aston Villa.

The entire football sector has suffered declining returns and plunging investor returns in recent times as the cascade of TV money pouring into the game has mainly poured out again into players' pockets. Media companies, however, still see football clubs as a source of potentially very valuable content.

-- Anonymous, October 23, 2001

Answers

bring back lord westwood????????

-- Anonymous, October 23, 2001

yeah we know.

-- Anonymous, October 23, 2001

thats all right then

-- Anonymous, October 23, 2001

interesting from another site.....

Close followers of the club's finances believe the financial position of Cameron Hall may have some bearing on the future direction of Newcastle United. Cameron Hall, which owns 22 per cent of the shares with another 25 per cent owned by a Hall family trust, has yet to file accounts for its most recent financial year, which ended in November 2000. This is technically a breach of the Companies Act and could lead to the company being dissolved or its directors fined.

It is all the more peculiar because its previous accounts – only filed at Companies House in May this year – cover just four months to the end of November 1999. In that period the company made a profit of £4.89m, more than accounted for by a £5.78m profit on the sale of a stake in Newcastle United to NTL. In the previous year the group lost £9.62m. The accounts show the group owed £39.4m in loans and finance leases, of which £16.9m was payable within a year. Cameron Hall has to pay £2.72m a year in interest and repayments on two loans worth £15.1m.

City analysts were surprised at the size of the £4.5m dividends paid by Newcastle United after it made a £9m loss in the last financial year; £2.12m went to Hall family businesses or trusts. Cameron Hall's main assets are the Wynard Park housing and industrial development in Cleveland and Fantasia Park, a leisure project in Portugal. Last week a BBC team travelled to Portugal to find that no building work had started on Fantasia Park.

-- Anonymous, October 23, 2001

Losing MOTD must have left the BBC with too much time on their hands. Taliban, Anthrax, Man Utd lose a game...and the BBC go to check out a building site.

-- Anonymous, October 23, 2001

"Fantasia Park?" - I was there on Sunday Roly, and can vouch for the fact that it has been completed. ;o{)

-- Anonymous, October 23, 2001

Clarky, is that where the Newcastle Jesters play?

-- Anonymous, October 23, 2001

Being a sad soul I was reading the company results last night. In the notes they mention that £2.95m was spent by NUFC with purchases from Cameron Hall. On what ?????

-- Anonymous, October 23, 2001

maybe Macbeth when you've got a whole bunch of "incentouous" corporate relationships it could be "management services" or perhaps Cameron Hall weere involved in the ground extension???? or refurbishment???

-- Anonymous, October 23, 2001

Share price up to 38p - a whole 22.5% increase today.

-- Anonymous, October 23, 2001

Share price currently up 7p or about 22%.

Speaking as a filthy capitalist pig who bought when they nose-dived last year I actually find this quite encouraging.

Speaking as a fan who was duped into buying £500 worth at something silly like £1.35 a pop I smell a rat the size of fat freddie's even fatter missus.

-- Anonymous, October 23, 2001

remember the "shorting" debate!!!

well those short positions were closed today, maybe FF bought more than just NTL's stake after all.

-- Anonymous, October 23, 2001

Cameron Hall probably supplied the flags banners for Flag Day! ;o{)

-- Anonymous, October 23, 2001

Roly,
Trading was still not particularly heavy today. There were 4 substantial trades involving ca.40,000 shares at around 35p.

If these were indeed short contracts being closed out, does this mean that the sponsor had to buy the shares in the market at 35p (neglecting any spread for simplicity) today to satisfy the contract?

Would you expect the price to drift back down to their original level if todays activity was indeed the result of shorting?

-- Anonymous, October 23, 2001

clarky been away

answers to your ???'s IMHO would be yes, yes and yes.

Freddy just needs to get to 75% and then he can mop the rest up without so much as a by your leave.....

I'd expect little activity for a week or so so that the price drifts back....

having said that I've not looked at the market for two days and I might be talking out of my fat arse..... (again!!!)

-- Anonymous, October 26, 2001