Mike Ashley puts Newcastle on the block

THE sportswear tycoon Mike Ashley is to put Newcastle United football club up for sale with a £100m price tag.
Ashley will appoint Keith Harris, chairman of Seymour Pierce, or bankers at NM Rothschild this week with a mandate to achieve a quick sale. His decision comes just days after the club was relegated from the Premier League.
The asking price is £34m less than Ashley paid for the club two years ago. Since then he has ploughed £110m of his own money into the northeast team to pay down its debts.
Ashley told The Sunday Times: “It has been catastrophic for everybody. I’ve lost my money and I’ve made terrible decisions. Now I want to sell it as soon as I can . . . advisers will be appointed shortly.”
If Ashley manages to find a buyer it will put an end to his controversial and occasionally acrimonious two-year spell in control at St James’ Park, having initially put the club up for sale for £400m last September because of a series of protests and demonstrations following Kevin Keegan’s departure as manager.
But dropping out of the top flight of English football has slashed the value of the club.
There has been some interest from Nigeria and South Africa but no firm takeover offers. The club’s demotion will make it harder to drum up bid interest.
Asked if he regretted his decision to buy the club two years ago, Ashley, who owns the sportswear chain Sports Direct, said: “Of course I regret it. I never said I was an expert in football clubs. I was just a fan – although a very wealthy fan. But I’m not so wealthy now. I put my money into it and I tried my best. But I accept my best was woefully short. I am genuinely sorry for everybody about what has happened.”
Ashley landed a £929m pay-day when he floated Sports Direct on the London stock exchange in 2007, but the credit crunch and a string of ill-fated gambles have slashed his wealth from £1.4 billion to £700m, according to this year’s Sunday Times Rich List.
The news comes as talks to give Alan Shearer, the care-taker manager, a full-time contract to rebuild Newcastle United were continuing this weekend.
Ashley also praised former interim manager Joe Kinnear, who took temporary charge of the club after Keegan quit last autumn. “I personally thought Joe put the club back on the right track. He took it from second bottom to 13th but things went against him,” said Ashley. Kinnear was forced to stand down because of ill health.
After its relegation from the Premier League, the club faces a big restructuring that is likely to lead to a clear-out of the first-team playing squad to balance the books. At present, Newcastle relies on a £40m work-ing-capital facility from Bar-clays bank.
Meanwhile, West Ham United is poised to be taken over by its creditors in coming weeks. Sources close to the east London football club say the huge debts of former owner Bjorgol-fur Gudmundsson and those of the club itself have all but killed the chances of any rescue.
This means it will fall into the hands of Icelandic bank Straumur and a consortium of other financial institutions.
Straumur is owed about £100m by Gudmundsson, while the club owes about £45m to a group of banks including RBS.
The Icelandic bank is expected to hold on to the club for between two and three years before putting it up for sale.
Source:The times