Charlie Methven claims former owner Stewart Donald would place an asking price of £11.7million on their combined 39 per cent shareholding in the club. The revelation comes after the former Sunderland owner expressed his desire to return to Eastleigh FC.
The former Sunderland director has acknowledged that it's time to close their chapter with the club, after fans were left outraged by the percentage of shareholdings they maintained after selling to Kyril Louis-Dreyfus. Methven claims that the asking price is a lower valuation than this time last year, despite '£8million investment' in the last 12 months.
Speaking to Roker Report, Methven said: "As you know, this time last year Stewart sold 41% of the club to the Louis-Dreyfus family. The details of that sale are confidential but it’s fair to say that Stewart was always hoping to find someone to purchase the entire club.
"Nevertheless, he agreed to the deal with Kyril because he felt that he would be a better chairman for the club going forward than some of the other candidates. Both Stewart and I were fully aware of the desire from a number of Sunderland fans for us to have nothing to do with the running of the club.
"Therefore, we elected not to take up the three board seats to which we are entitled and kept away from the SoL and AoL, whilst still making our pro rata financial contributions. It has now become clear, though, that there is a group of fans that views even our continued presence on the shareholding register as an impediment to the club’s progress.
"To help solve that problem, earlier this week Stewart placed our combined 39% shareholding of the club with a prominent broker for sale at £11.7million (equal to a club valuation of £30 million). That is a lower valuation than this time last year, despite more than £8million of investment over the last 12 months on infrastructure, players and Covid-related payments.
"I think that Stewart is now on the record as saying that he wants to go back to Eastleigh, and in general I think that all parties recognise that it’s time to close this chapter swiftly and reasonably. I read in media reports that Steve Davison has stated that there is a desire to buy those shares from existing shareholders.
"Obviously, if that is the case then the situation would be resolved very quickly, as there would be no need for due diligence, new shareholder agreements and EFL approvals. However, if existing shareholders do not in fact wish to buy the shares – as is 100% their prerogative - then a bit more patience may be required."
