In the past few days David Gold and David Sullivan have categorically denied that they are interested in selling West Ham United shares after recent reports in the media.
It appears that Gold and Sullivan have been flirting with the idea and word has been spread within the market to see what interest they could get.
One person who may be of interest is Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani.
Ambani is a business tycoon who is currently India’s wealthiest man with an estimated fortune of £18bn. He is the chairman of Reliance Industries and owns IPL cricket team Mumbai Indians.
Seven years ago, Ambani was reportedly interested in taking control of Liverpool with Subrata Roy, with the hope of obtaining a 51% stake in the historic football club.
If Mukesh Ambani acquired West Ham, you would expect his wife, Nita, to take on a role at the club going by her past involvement with Mumbai Indians and her institute Dhirubhai Ambani International School. Mukesh has stated recently that Nita had made the Mumbai Indians cricket team a bigger brand than the investors, Reliance.
Any potential purchase would require that 13.8% of shares currently held by various ownerships, the majority of which is owned by C&B Holdings. David Sullivan would have to relinquish part of his majority 51.1% stake and David Gold to sell part of his 35.1% stake to enable Ambani to be the majority shareholder.
Gold and Sullivan have previously stated that they would not want to completely give up ownership as they would want their families to inherit part of the club. The current owners did also say many years ago that they would welcome equal ownership and a deal was almost done with AirAsia founder and self-announced West Ham fan Tony Fernandes.
However, the deal fell through due to Fernandes wanting a majority share in a debt ridden club and he later bought Queens Park Rangers along with investing in the Lotus Formula One team.
The Ambani situation would be different as he is currently number 33 on the current Forbes Billionaires List.
His vast fortune would be heavily considered by the current ownership to further invest in West Ham United. The potential and possible investment would enable West Ham to compete with Arsenal and Chelsea in the transfer market to secure £40m+ players. The investment would also be within the infrastructure of the club by making Rush Green Training Centre a World Class facility to help young talent develop into top players.
The West Ham community would also have an injection of wealth to help those in need within the local area to gain further support from East London.
Is Mukesh Ambani the right man to take over the club? Should Gold and Sullivan retain assets in the club? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below…
