Everton remain in talks over inward investment into the football club with more than one party currently assessing their options.
Club owner Farhad Moshiri, who reaffirmed his desire not to sell the club when contacted by the ECHO last month, has been open on potentially bringing in a minority partner to recapitalise the business and bring on board new faces and areas of expertise to aid future growth plans.
Moshiri has been in talks with New York-based sports investment fund MSP Sports Capital, with MSP co-founders Jahm Najafi and Jeff Moorad, as well as vice-president Pete Taylor all in attendance for the 2-1 Premier League defeat at home to Southampton last month.
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MSP, whose interest in Everton was first reported by Bloomberg last month, have sporting interests that range from investments in the McLaren Formula One team, ownership of the extreme sports competition 'X Games', and football investments in football clubs including German side FC Augsburg, G.D. Estoril Praia in Portugal, Spain’s AD Alcorcon and Belgian side SK Beveren.
According to a report in the Mirror on Tuesday, talks have centred around a 25 per cent stake in the club worth £105m, with the club valuation based on that standing at around £420m.
The ECHO understands that while MSP are interested they are one of a number of potential investors, including other institutional investors from North America, talks remain in the early stages and no deal is imminent.
It is also understood that Matthew Hammond, a long-time business associate of Moshiri's who has previously held positions as chief financial officer of Russia's Mail.ru Group, has been engaged by Moshiri personally to facilitate some of the talks in a role as an independent strategic advisor.
Moshiri, when speaking to Everton's Fan Advisory Board last month, revealed that he was "close" to securing financing for the remainder of the stadium.
That deal, it is understood, is separate to any talks over an equity stake in the football club, with that search being conducted by investment banks MUFG and JP Morgan Chase.
MSP have a track record of successful investments in sport as well as for being hands-on investors who have typically taken positions of influence within the organisations where they have deployed capital.
Moorad, writing in an editorial for US sports business website Sportico last year, explained: "At MSP Sports Capital, we only pursue investments with operational control or significant influence.
"Fundamentally, investors are attracted to the disproportionate annualised returns available in sports, with limited relative downside risk. In order to achieve favourable risk-adjusted returns, investing discipline remains critical in an industry where emotion can easily take hold of the uninitiated. We believe it’s critical to evaluate both macro dynamics (trajectory of the sport, league management, league competition, regulatory environment) and micro dynamics specific to the asset (management team, brand power and digital presence, fan/sponsor loyalty, local market dynamics and real estate opportunities).
"We’re thrilled to be building a global soccer platform with partners David Blitzer and Bolt Football Holdings. We’re also fortunate to have a law firm like Morgan Lewis (a firm where Moorad has a roles as partner and chairman of the firm's global sports practice) on retainer—there is a premium on having the right professionals in place to be able to strike when a deal is hot."
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