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London - Alisher Usmanov is hoping to increase his stake in Arsenal and overtake Stan Kroenke as the English Premiership club's main shareholder.
According to the SportBusiness website, the Russian billionaire currently owns a 27% share in Arsenal and hopes to acquire another 2.9% to surpass American Kroenke, who currently controls a 29.8% stake. Should Usmanov succeed in increasing his share to 29.9%, he would still be left 0.1% short of the stake required to trigger an automatic takeover bid.
Usmanov and Kroenke have both been increasing their stakes in the club over the last few years and the Uzbekistan-born metals and mining tycoon has not ruled out completing a full takeover.
“Today, we have 27%, but our objective is to bring that up to a blocking stake of 29.9%,” Usmanov told Russian state television. “From there, we will just keep looking. You can never tell what will happen in life.”
Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith, one of the club's other two shareholders, put her 15.9% stake up for sale in April. Non-executive director Danny Fiszman, who controls 16% of shares, is the club's other major shareholder.
According to the SportBusiness website, the Russian billionaire currently owns a 27% share in Arsenal and hopes to acquire another 2.9% to surpass American Kroenke, who currently controls a 29.8% stake. Should Usmanov succeed in increasing his share to 29.9%, he would still be left 0.1% short of the stake required to trigger an automatic takeover bid.
Usmanov and Kroenke have both been increasing their stakes in the club over the last few years and the Uzbekistan-born metals and mining tycoon has not ruled out completing a full takeover.
“Today, we have 27%, but our objective is to bring that up to a blocking stake of 29.9%,” Usmanov told Russian state television. “From there, we will just keep looking. You can never tell what will happen in life.”
Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith, one of the club's other two shareholders, put her 15.9% stake up for sale in April. Non-executive director Danny Fiszman, who controls 16% of shares, is the club's other major shareholder.
