Lerner seals Villa takeover
27 Sep 2006 - 09:17:04
US billionaire Randy Lerner has completed his takeover of Aston Villa after moving past the 90 per cent mark of share ownership in the club.
Lerner can now take total ownership of the Villa Park club under a compulsory purchase order and is expected to de-list the Premiership outfit from the Stock Exchange and run the club as a private company.
A statement to the Stock Exchange from Lerner's company, Reform Acquisitions Limited, read: "RAL has now received valid acceptances of the offer in respect of more than 90 per cent of the Aston Villa shares to which the offer relates.
"Accordingly, RAL has today issued notices under Schedule 2 to the Takeovers Directive (Interim Implementation) Regulations 2006 to those Aston Villa shareholders who have not already accepted the offer, informing them that it now intends to exercise its rights to acquire compulsorily all the Aston Villa shares outstanding at the expiry of the requisite notice period.
"In the meantime, the offer remains open for acceptance."
Lerner also owns NFL side the Cleveland Browns and is the chairman of credit card company MBNA.
