After almost two years of trying, Dubai is one step closer to taking control of a British football club - but one no pundit in the land would ever have guessed it would acquire. Late on Friday night Charlton Athletic Football Club, a London-based publicly listed club lying just below mid-table in England's second tier, The Championship, released a statement confirming that Zabeel Investments, a company with assets under management of Dh21 billion (US$6bn), had received an undisclosed "indicative cash offer" to buy the club. The amount is thought to be around £50 million (Dh312m).
Charlton Athletic, nicknamed the Addicks, said theyy had entered into a period of due diligence with Zabeel Investments and that should the offer be made formally to shareholders the board would "recommend" shareholders to accept it. "There is, however, no certainty that a formal offer will be made," the statement added. Dubai companies, and in particular Zabeel Investments, may be new to football but they have had their eyes on an English sporting prize for the past 20 months.
In the statement Zabeel Investments said it had been "looking at the opportunity to invest in a leading English football club" and "monitoring the situation at Charlton Athletic FC closely". "In spite of being approached by various English football clubs as well as a number of well known clubs in Europe and South America, Zabeel Investments believes Charlton is the right club for them," the statement added.
Last February, Zabeel Investments, alongside Dubai International Capital, the international investment arm of Dubai Holding, attempted to buy the Premier League team Liverpool, 18-times English champions, but were rejected in favour of a higher bid by US billionaires, Tom Hicks and George Gillett. Headed by executive chairman Mohammed Al Hashimi, Zabeel had been prepared to inject 20 per cent of the estimated £200m to buy the Merseyside club. However, the deal, which Mr Al Hashimi described to The National when interviewed in May this year, as a "steal" and a "bargain", fell through when the Liverpool board decided to sell the club to US billionaire Tom Hicks and George Gillet with an offer worth £5,000 per share, valuing the club and its £44.8m debts at £218.9m.
Months later, the North American duo went through a very public falling out with Mr Hicks flying to Dubai in an attempt to offload his 50 per cent share. He returned to Zabeel but the company refused point blank as did all the other UAE parties he approached and he returned empty-handed. Meanwhile, last month the privately run company that has stakes in Sony Corp, plane maker EADS and Las Vegas hotel and entertainment firm The Light Group, pulled out of talks to buy Newcastle United when its current owner Mike Ashley was in the emirate with the aim of selling the club for about £400m - twice the amount he paid for it in May 2007. He is still looking for a buyer having seen an initial deadline expire last week.
At one point Mr Al Hashimi was offered the opportunity to buy a share of Arsenal but refused on the grounds that the London club was "overvalued". "Arsenal was a good deal... but I wasn't interested in a minority stake. I knew those guys were not going to sell, and this was when the share price was £5,500 a share. Now it's at about £11,500 a share and no one is budging," he told The National in May.
The 103 year-old club were last year the subject of interest from a group of businessmen from the Middle East and Europe, but takeover talks were later called off. Friday's deal, however was completely unexpected with the company and the club keeping the deal close to their chests over the past month. It is still unclear what motivation Zabeel had in bidding for the side that was relegated from the Premier League in 2007 with a mere 34 points.
The club's ground, The Valley, however is in the affluent London borough of Greenwich, an area which could play a key role in the London 2012 Olympic Games and potentially offer Zabeel and its property development arm, some promising land on which to expand the stadium or build prime real estate. The area is also due to receive a grant under a redevelopment scheme backed by the British government. The Valley was recently redeveloped into a modern, all-seater stadium with a capacity of 27,111. There are plans in place to increase the ground's capacity to approximately 30,000 in the future.
Unlike Liverpool's five European Cup wins, Charlton Athletic's last trophy was an FA Cup win in 1947. "We feel now is the right time to make a strategic, long term investment in Charlton and get CAFC back to the English Premier League where they belong," said Mr Al Hashimi in the statement. "The passion of the fans at Charlton, the heritage of the Club and the unique status it enjoys in the community make it an exciting proposition for us." he added.
Zabeel Investments were not available for comment due to entering a period of due diligence. @Email:jbennett@thenational.ae
