A Nasdaq-listed investment fund has failed in an attempt to buy into Tottenham Hotspur at a valuation of £3billion.
LAMF Global Ventures - a Los Angeles-based special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that raised over $250million in its November initial public offering - is seeking to purchase an elite European football club this year.
Chaired by Jeffrey Soros - the nephew of billionaire investor George Soros - LAMF is understood to have identified Tottenham as its principal Premier League target.
Special advisor Keith Harris pitched the SPAC's valuation of Tottenham in a recent meeting with Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy, only for the proposal to be rebuffed.
While Tottenham, majority owned by Joe Lewis, have been prepared to entertain investment proposals, recently showing Singaporean entrepreneur Forrest Li around their rebuilt stadium and training ground, Levy is opposed to the club relisting on a stock exchange.
Acquisition of the club's share capital by a SPAC, whether partial or complete, would require Tottenham to do so for the first time since 2012.
A source familiar with the discussions told Record Sport : “It will be nothing to do with valuation, and all about the fact that Spurs would have no interest in a SPAC. If they wanted to go public they certainly wouldn't need to do it through a SPAC.”
Industry experts concur that an off-market takeover from a private individual or family office may be a more effective way of utilising the value created by Tottenham's £1bn-plus infrastructure investments.
As LAMF's initial share offering was oversubscribed, the “blank-cheque company” is confident of raising substantial additional capital with which to buy into European football.
Harris, who is described in the SPAC's Securities and Exchange Commission registration statement as “a leading advisor to UK clubs, including Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur and Celtic, [who] has initiated and advised in over 30 completed acquisitions of predominantly Premier League clubs in the UK and continental Europe”, has been charged with securing the acquisition target.
Alternative English options such as Everton are not as attractive as Tottenham. Elsewhere in Europe, for-sale clubs such as AC Milan also come with significant complications.
While Tottenham's London location, Premier League status and balance-sheet fundamentals led to LAMF's £3bn valuation, its handling of on-field assets has again come under criticism from Antonio Conte. Pressed by the coach to radically restructure Tottenham's first-team squad, Levy sanctioned the January loans of Giovanni Lo Celso, Bryan Gil and Tanguy Ndombele, a trio of midfielders acquired at a transfer-fee cost of over £125m in recent windows.
"Usually you buy players to reinforce your team," commented Conte. "But if you send on loan after two or three years it is strange. It means that maybe in the past you have to see what you did and maybe to understand that there were some mistakes.
"We have to pay more attention in the future when we go into the market. It becomes a fundamental importance if we want to enforce the team, otherwise you drop the quality of your team."
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