Nottingham Forest shareholders reject bid
Team line-up in the takeover battle for a slice of Premiership action
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The battle for control of Nottingham Forest looked set to drag on for several more weeks last night after the club's shareholders rejected a pounds 13m takeover bid by a consortium led by Sandy Anderson, the Porterbrook Leasing chief executive. Mr Anderson's failure to gain the required 75 per cent majority opens the door for rival bidders.
The meeting, which finished at 10pm, ended a day of frantic manoeuvring by the rival bid groups as they attempted to woo potential new investors as well as the club's 209 shareholders.
The bid battle took an early twist yesterday when one of the bidders switched camps just hours ahead of the crunch vote.
As shareholders travelled to Forest's City Ground to vote on the Anderson offer, Blenheim Exhibitions founder Lawrie Lewis threw his weight behind the Anderson faction. Mr Lewis had previously pulled out of a rival group bidding for Forest which included former Tottenham chairman Irving Scholar and local businessman Phil Soar. Yesterday Mr Lewis offered to inject pounds 3m in cash into Forest in return for a minority shareholding in the Anderson group.
The Irving Scholar-Phil Soar camp, which has already lined up Burford Holdings chairman Nigel Wray, attended the meeting to distribute leaflets to Forest shareholders.
Marjorie Scardino, Pearson's chief executive, yesterday denied any formal involvement with the Wray bid. But she admitted that her husband, Albert, was acting as a "scout" to attract US and Canadian investors to the consortium.
Though the new Pearson chief clearly has more than a passing interest in the Forest situation, she stressed that the involvement of the Scardino household was separate from her role at Pearson. Mr Scardino was in Nottingham last night. "I have no formal involvement but I am very interested and may end up investing in one of more of the consortia," he said.
Meanwhile Grant Bovey, the video entrepreneur, will renew his bid claim today after receiving backing from the Dixon Corporation, a European construction group owned by an Andorran-based company. He is offering to lend Forest the cash to complete the purchase of Nigel Clough from Manchester City. He also pledges to increase his previous offer to a pounds 15m cash injection on completion and a further pounds 5m to shareholders. A further pounds 10m would be available in the close season, he said.
The Anderson consortium may well come back with an increased offer. If it eventually succeeds, it is expected he will quit as a director of Stagecoach, the company which acquired Porterbrook last year, to become Forest's chief executive.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments