US tycoon joins fight to buy Leeds Duncan Castles
An American businessman with a personal wealth of over $250million has offered Ken Bates an alternative option for the sale of Leeds United. Preston Haskell has proposed an investment into the Championship club that would surpass the funds Bahraini investment company GFH Capital has tabled.
In addition to the new equity Haskell wants to invest in Leeds, an immediate £10m would be made available to Neil Warnock to strengthen his squad in the Football League loan market and January transfer window. The American's stated aim is to first achieve promotion to the Premier League and ultimately return Leeds United to contention at the summit of the domestic and European game.
“I look at a team like Leeds United as a long-term investment,” Haskell told The Sunday Times yesterday. “As a businessman I see a club that has an incredible brand and that offers a great entrepreneurial opportunity to take it back to the level which it saw in its glory days. Leeds is a well-managed club from Ken Bates down to Neil Warnock, and I have great respect for that aspect of its operations."
“It's a very strategic investment. I love English football, the Premier League is where everyone aspires to be, and Leeds has an incredible support base, the pedigree, and a global reach, including South Africa, Australia, Ireland, and Norway. In short, it has a global following. It is one of the absolute blue-chip teams.” Haskell has become a fan of the club in recent years.
Haskell has been working on his bid since mid-August, attending the Championship fixture with Hull City with his long-term business partner Ted Sullivan, who will join Leeds board if the approach succeeds. He has held extensive discussions with Warnock and chief executive Shaun Harvey about the investment required to bring Leeds back into contention for promotion this season. A key aspect of his proposed investment would be to buy the club's Elland Road stadium and Thorp Arch training ground back out of lease.
Haskell, 46, made his fortune as an entrepreneur in Moscow real estate and, most recently, with mining in Siberia and Africa. He has extensive investments in the Democratic Republic of Congo where he is currently building a city and is prepared to finance the proposed investment in Leeds United entirely with cash. Haskell has extensive experience of the sports industry, with his family owning a minority stake in the Jacksonville Jaguars NFL franchise until recently.
GFH Capital – a 100% subsidiary of the indebted Islamic bank Gulf Finance House - remains confident of ending its own tortuous attempt to acquire Leeds in the coming week. Though a figure of between £44 and £52million has been widely floated to the media, the Bahraini offer to Bates is worth considerably less than either sum. Well-placed sources in the City place the total value at £34m, with around half contingent on Leeds achieving promotion to the Premier League.
GFH Capital's approach has been under discussion for most of 2012. A complex exclusivity clause preventing Bates from selling to other parties expires on Thursday. In an attempt to conclude its own deal, the investment company has offered the 80-year-old chairman a compromise deal in which he will remain at the club at least until the end of the season. On Friday, Leeds United Supporters Trust issued a statement expressing supporters' concerns over the “intentions and true capabilities” of GFH Capital. The 8500-strong Trust also called on Bates “to fully explore other opportunities for investment”.