Source: Telegraph
Portsmouth FC close to Arab takeover
With loans of £44 million owing to Standard Bank and Barclays Bank, Alexandre Gaydamak, the current owner, had faced an urgent need to find a buyer this summer, with chief executive Peter Storrie admitting that the consequences of failure did not bear thinking about.
The deal is being done through Al Fahim's new investment vehicle, Al Fahim Asia Associates, and is being structured by specialist international private equity and asset management firm Falcon Group.
It is understood that the takeover will be worth around £40 million and largely involve paying off the club's creditors, with Al Fahim, who is a billionaire in his own right, hugely ambitious about Portsmouth's potential.
Pini Zahavi, the Israeli agent, has also been involved in facilitating negotiations, with Al Fahim and Storrie concluding the deal in Rome on Tuesday ahead of last night's Champions League final between Manchester United and Barcelona.
'A period of formal legal and financial due diligence will commence next week so that so that the transaction can be completed as soon as possible,' a Portsmouth spokesman said.
Al Fahim, who was born in Dubai, largely accumulated his fortune as a property developer and has achieved added fame in the Middle East as the United Arab Emirates' answer to Sir Alan Sugar on a popular reality television show.
He came to prominence in England last August with a series of extraordinary predictions for Manchester City, including an intention to make the club 'bigger than both Real Madrid and Manchester United'.
However, while initially the front man for City owner Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, he has not taken up any official position at the club. It is understood that he now intends to take an active role as Portsmouth chairman, working alongside chief executive Storrie.
The immediate priority will be to retain the core of a squad that includes David James, Glen Johnson, Sol Campbell, Peter Crouch and Niko Kranjcar. A decision will also have to be made regarding the manager, with Paul Hart expected to revert to his role at the academy and a higher-profile name, possibly Sven-Goran Eriksson, appointed for next season.
Al Fahim became a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations last year and it has also been suggested that he will use Portsmouth's shirts to promote an anti-malnutrition campaign.
For Gaydamak, it brings to an end a three-year adventure in English football. Having paid around £32 million to buy Portsmouth from Milan Mandaric in 2006, he spent further millions to support Harry Redknapp in building a squad that won the FA Cup and recorded their highest league finish for 53 years. However, the success came at a cost.
He hosts an Apprentice-style reality show TV that pits American and British entrepreneurs against one another for a chance to work at his company.He is a goodwill ambassador for the Intergovernmental Institution for the use of Micro-algae Spirulina Against Malnutrition. A former international chess player, he is president of the UAE chess federation. In a list of the world's 100 most powerful Arabs, he was rated fourth. He is the author of the best-seller Brand Builder and gained a PhD in Real Estate management in the US.
