' Swansea takeover confirmed '

' Swansea takeover confirmed '

Sunday 5th June 2016

The American takeover of Swansea City worth around £100m has been completed, subject to Premier League approval.

Jason Levien and Steve Kaplan lead a consortium which has bought a controlling stake of 60% in the club.

They must now pass the Premier League's test for prospective owners for the takeover to be officially approved.

A statement said. "Both see the takeover of Swansea City as an exciting opportunity for long-term growth in the club in every area."

BBC Wales Sport revealed in April which of Swansea's directors would be selling all - or part - of their shares.

With the club now valued at about £100m, shares are believed to have increased tenfold in worth since the current board took charge in 2002.

Swansea City Supporters' Trust, which has a representative on the board, will retain its full 21.1% stake.

Chairman Huw Jenkins and vice-chairman Leigh Dineen, who will stay in their roles, will keep a reduced part of their current holdings, which are 13.2% and 5.3% respectively.





Huw Jenkins
Chairman Huw Jenkins has helped Swansea become a stable Premier League club since promotion in 2011
Hotelier Martin Morgan and wife Louisa hold the biggest stake in the Swans - 23.7% in the name of their company OTH Limited - though those shares could be divided and a small amount retained.

South Africa-born businessman Brian Katzen - who was part of the consortium which helped save the club in 2002 - will sell most of the 21.1% stake he has with business partner Jeffrey Crevoiserat.

Rob Davies, who ran Liberty Properties - title sponsors of the club's stadium - will sell his 10.5% holding, while Dutch businessman John van Zweden, who owns 5.3%, will also sell up.

Levien is the managing general partner of Major League Soccer side DC United, while Kaplan is principal of Oaktree Capital investment fund and vice-chairman of NBA franchise Memphis Grizzlies.

They are understood to be keen to buy Swansea's home ground, Liberty Stadium, which is owned by the local council, with a view to increasing its capacity.

Levien and Kaplan had initially been negotiating a deal which would have seen them acquire more than 75% of Swansea's shares, effectively giving the American consortium complete control, including the power to issue more shares.

However, the modified acquisition of 60% will see the trust retain its 21.1% stake and ensure continuity at board level with the retention of Jenkins and Dineen.

Swansea will be based in Washington DC, home of Levien's DC United, for their pre-season tour to the USA in July.

The big question here is will the owners be another Venkys / Lerner or will they get lucky and find a owner like the leicester guy whos name i cant spell

Would it be fair to say American Ownership has not really brought success to Premier League Clubs ?

Villa

Liverpool - Hicks & somemone else I can't remember

New Liverpool owners - doing o.k

Man Utd - under-performing, leveraged takeover, saddled with debt

Fulham

Will take them to the next level,I'm afraid to say

Will take them to the next level,I'm afraid to say

you base your opinion on....?

If it works out, they will be challenging for a europa league place next season.

This investment will take them light years away from us and if they get the planning approval to increase their capacity to 37000 we will always be a smaller club to them.

If it works out, they will be challenging for a europa league place next season.

This investment will take them light years away from us and if they get the planning approval to increase their capacity to 37000 we will always be a smaller club to them.

Does the interest warrant that kind of expansion?

Personally I doubt we will ever challenge them again, they are way to established now, and are taking all the young fans and floating fans around South Wales who wish to watch top draw football. We however I believe will always be a safe championship side with the odd good cup run, which I think is far better than having to panda down to the over rated premier league.
And of course all those South Wales based Liverpool fans have at least one fixture they can attend each season

Comedy gold

At present only 50m in total is earmarked for squad improvement an ground improvements, but will that happen to a ground they don't own?

There's talk of them buying the stadium,anyway while Jenkins is still there it's onwards and upwards for them the man is a football genius.

There's talk of them buying the stadium,anyway while Jenkins is still there it's onwards and upwards for them the man is a football genius.

Surely can't just buy a publicly owned building what about ospreys?
Yes he's a genius got himself a multi million pay off from peanuts investment!

The money side doesn't interest me and impresses even less,but his football knowledge is unbelievable.

The money side doesn't interest me and impresses even less,but his football knowledge is unbelievable.

Just like Tan!

So the stadium gets bought, the extension happens blah blah blah.

The club won't be owned by the supporters anyomore and they could be rebranded just like Cardiff was. Giving up control is a mistake in my opinion. Who's to say they will be in the PL by the time that extension is built??

Watch this space....

So the stadium gets bought, the extension happens blah blah blah.

The club won't be owned by the supporters anyomore and they could be rebranded just like Cardiff was. Giving up control is a mistake in my opinion. Who's to say they will be in the PL by the time that extension is built??

Watch this space....

Watch this space indeed!

Swansea simply HAD to sell, as the club (despite the Premier League money) were/are having 'cashflow' issues due to the enormous costs of maintaining a squad capable of maintaining Premier League status

This has been highlighted previously and Swansea fans need to ask themselves why the current lot would sell up just as the Premier League riches were increasing to astounding levels?

Dim stadium estyniad angenrheidiol!

So the stadium gets bought, the extension happens blah blah blah.

The club won't be owned by the supporters anyomore and they could be rebranded just like Cardiff was. Giving up control is a mistake in my opinion. Who's to say they will be in the PL by the time that extension is built??

Watch this space....

Watch this space indeed!

Swansea simply HAD to sell, as the club (despite the Premier League money) were/are having 'cashflow' issues due to the enormous costs of maintaining a squad capable of maintaining Premier League status

This has been highlighted previously and Swansea fans need to ask themselves why the current lot would sell up just as the Premier League riches were increasing to astounding levels?

Dim stadium estyniad angenrheidiol!

With the extra revenues, the shares in the club have never been valued so highly Sven, it's just a case of a good time to sell

Haven't posted on here in quite a while, but with all this going on I thought I'd have a look at your opinions...

Just quickly with regards the stadium, talks have been ongoing for a while about buying it. I'm sure the Ospreys will have guarantees attached to any deal as they can't return to the Gnoll or St.Helens due to a lack of hospitality space at either ground.

There are a lot of concerns about this takeover, the first and main one being that all the money in this deal is between the buyers and sellers...we have no idea if we are looking at someone who wants to invest, or if they are just after the Premier league money at the moment. I guess if it's the money, they have to try and make us competitive and avoid relegation?

It also seems that the supporters trust have been bypassed in much of this deal, shabby by some of our shareholders to say the least. It turns out that owning 21% of the club meant sod all in the scheme of things.

As for the shareholders selling up and making a fortune? Can't blame them really, for all the hand wringing going on down here, these were the folks willing to give it a go when we were on our arse, they could just as easily have lost their investment, in fact, at the time, that looked more likely. These guys have given us 15 amazing years, if they have decided that their time is up, who can blame them?

As for the new owners, only time will tell. But there is a lot of suspicion about this deal down here, we've been here before in the past so I'm quite happy that were suspicious of them, hopefully (for our part in any case) they prove the doubters wrong.

Just trying to give you a Swans fans point of view, hope it helps...

Haven't posted on here in quite a while, but with all this going on I thought I'd have a look at your opinions...

Just quickly with regards the stadium, talks have been ongoing for a while about buying it. I'm sure the Ospreys will have guarantees attached to any deal as they can't return to the Gnoll or St.Helens due to a lack of hospitality space at either ground.

There are a lot of concerns about this takeover, the first and main one being that all the money in this deal is between the buyers and sellers...we have no idea if we are looking at someone who wants to invest, or if they are just after the Premier league money at the moment. I guess if it's the money, they have to try and make us competitive and avoid relegation?

It also seems that the supporters trust have been bypassed in much of this deal, shabby by some of our shareholders to say the least. It turns out that owning 21% of the club meant sod all in the scheme of things.

As for the shareholders selling up and making a fortune? Can't blame them really, for all the hand wringing going on down here, these were the folks willing to give it a go when we were on our arse, they could just as easily have lost their investment, in fact, at the time, that looked more likely. These guys have given us 15 amazing years, if they have decided that their time is up, who can blame them?

As for the new owners, only time will tell. But there is a lot of suspicion about this deal down here, we've been here before in the past so I'm quite happy that were suspicious of them, hopefully (for our part in any case) they prove the doubters wrong.

Just trying to give you a Swans fans point of view, hope it helps...

Thanks for posting this. It's always good to get the thoughts from the other side.

I personally think if they don't go balls to the wall, and grow at a sustainable rate, there's no reason why they can't be challenging for Europe next season, potentially season after. I reckon you'll go through another manager or two before then.

Haven't posted on here in quite a while, but with all this going on I thought I'd have a look at your opinions...

Just quickly with regards the stadium, talks have been ongoing for a while about buying it. I'm sure the Ospreys will have guarantees attached to any deal as they can't return to the Gnoll or St.Helens due to a lack of hospitality space at either ground.

There are a lot of concerns about this takeover, the first and main one being that all the money in this deal is between the buyers and sellers...we have no idea if we are looking at someone who wants to invest, or if they are just after the Premier league money at the moment. I guess if it's the money, they have to try and make us competitive and avoid relegation?

It also seems that the supporters trust have been bypassed in much of this deal, shabby by some of our shareholders to say the least. It turns out that owning 21% of the club meant sod all in the scheme of things.

As for the shareholders selling up and making a fortune? Can't blame them really, for all the hand wringing going on down here, these were the folks willing to give it a go when we were on our arse, they could just as easily have lost their investment, in fact, at the time, that looked more likely. These guys have given us 15 amazing years, if they have decided that their time is up, who can blame them?

As for the new owners, only time will tell. But there is a lot of suspicion about this deal down here, we've been here before in the past so I'm quite happy that were suspicious of them, hopefully (for our part in any case) they prove the doubters wrong.

Just trying to give you a Swans fans point of view, hope it helps...

Great post, fella. Thank you!

I think Huw Jenkins and Leigh Dineen staying on to run the show locally on their behalf must give some hope of stability going into the future?

Haven't posted on here in quite a while, but with all this going on I thought I'd have a look at your opinions...

Just quickly with regards the stadium, talks have been ongoing for a while about buying it. I'm sure the Ospreys will have guarantees attached to any deal as they can't return to the Gnoll or St.Helens due to a lack of hospitality space at either ground.

There are a lot of concerns about this takeover, the first and main one being that all the money in this deal is between the buyers and sellers...we have no idea if we are looking at someone who wants to invest, or if they are just after the Premier league money at the moment. I guess if it's the money, they have to try and make us competitive and avoid relegation?

It also seems that the supporters trust have been bypassed in much of this deal, shabby by some of our shareholders to say the least. It turns out that owning 21% of the club meant sod all in the scheme of things.

As for the shareholders selling up and making a fortune? Can't blame them really, for all the hand wringing going on down here, these were the folks willing to give it a go when we were on our arse, they could just as easily have lost their investment, in fact, at the time, that looked more likely. These guys have given us 15 amazing years, if they have decided that their time is up, who can blame them?

As for the new owners, only time will tell. But there is a lot of suspicion about this deal down here, we've been here before in the past so I'm quite happy that were suspicious of them, hopefully (for our part in any case) they prove the doubters wrong.

Just trying to give you a Swans fans point of view, hope it helps...

Great post, fella. Thank you!

I think Huw Jenkins and Leigh Dineen staying on to run the show locally on their behalf must give some hope of stability going into the future?

That's the saving grace Sven having chair and vice staying. However, as previously pointed out, the money isn't going into the club. It's between the buyers and the shareholders who are selling. On the face of it, not much in it for the club.

Haven't posted on here in quite a while, but with all this going on I thought I'd have a look at your opinions...

Just quickly with regards the stadium, talks have been ongoing for a while about buying it. I'm sure the Ospreys will have guarantees attached to any deal as they can't return to the Gnoll or St.Helens due to a lack of hospitality space at either ground.

There are a lot of concerns about this takeover, the first and main one being that all the money in this deal is between the buyers and sellers...we have no idea if we are looking at someone who wants to invest, or if they are just after the Premier league money at the moment. I guess if it's the money, they have to try and make us competitive and avoid relegation?

It also seems that the supporters trust have been bypassed in much of this deal, shabby by some of our shareholders to say the least. It turns out that owning 21% of the club meant sod all in the scheme of things.

As for the shareholders selling up and making a fortune? Can't blame them really, for all the hand wringing going on down here, these were the folks willing to give it a go when we were on our arse, they could just as easily have lost their investment, in fact, at the time, that looked more likely. These guys have given us 15 amazing years, if they have decided that their time is up, who can blame them?

As for the new owners, only time will tell. But there is a lot of suspicion about this deal down here, we've been here before in the past so I'm quite happy that were suspicious of them, hopefully (for our part in any case) they prove the doubters wrong.

Just trying to give you a Swans fans point of view, hope it helps...

Great post, fella. Thank you!

I think Huw Jenkins and Leigh Dineen staying on to run the show locally on their behalf must give some hope of stability going into the future?

That's the saving grace Sven having chair and vice staying. However, as previously pointed out, the money isn't going into the club. It's between the buyers and the shareholders who are selling. On the face of it, not much in it for the club.

You are, of course, correct. Chair and Vice staying may just stem the flow (for a little while at least)