Investors warned they will have ‘no power’ if they buy Daniel Levy’s Tottenham Hotspur shares

Daniel Levy has attracted interest in his shares at Tottenham Hotspur, but a purchase would not deliver control at the club.

That’s according to talkSPORT reporter Ben Jacobs amid reports that his stake at the north London club could change hands.

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Despite stepping down as Spurs chairman in September, Levy still has a 29.88 per cent stake in owners ENIC along with family members.

As per The Sun, Brooklyn Earick and Ng Wing-Fai have joined forces in a bid to buy Levy’s shares following their failed takeover attempts.

Levy is also said to be eyeing £1billion for his stake at Spurs.

However, Jacobs has played down talk of a deal being agreed in the near future and hinted at a lack of power for potential investors.

Will Levy sell his Spurs shares?

“I think it’s a bit premature to say that it’s happening,” Jacobs said. “Of course, Levy is free to negotiate his 29.88 per cent or so of the club away from those current executives.

“My understanding at this stage is that nobody has met Levy’s valuation. Now, we heard some reports suggesting that two failed prospective bidders, who were ruled out to buy 100 per cent of Tottenham, are going to team up and try to take Levy’s 29 per cent.

“One of them is the former DJ, Brooklyn Earick, and the other is Hong Kong-based businessman, Ng Wing-Fai, who put together a broader group.

“As per takeover rules, when both of them applied independently for 100 per cent of the club, they then had to state if they were making a bid and neither of them proceeded.

“And now some reports have suggested that they want to get a smaller stake, directly off Daniel Levy. Spurs sources I speak to say two things really clearly.

“One, they’ve not been informed that Levy is about to sell and two, there is scepticism that whether the individuals that were named in the press have the funds to meet Levy’s valuation.

Instagram @brooklynearick

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“The other thing to note is that this isn’t a trojan horse into the club, so if somebody buys Levy’s stake, it comes with no power, and Tottenham are adamant that you can’t then go and take more shares off more people and get a longer-term pat to buying the entire club.

“So it’s a lot of money and ultimately, even if someone does buy Levy’s 29 per cent, they’re not going to get any control of even voting power.”

Jacobs added: “A lot of people speculate that it’s PR, it’s prestige.

“When Earick, in particular, bid, many people felt like he was driving the agenda through the media as it was great in terms of the media and sometimes with takeover groups, that’s what happens.

“You want the brand exposure, you want to sit in a hospitality box, you want to host other clients, it can be good for business.

“But if you look at Levy’s valuation, even when he was at Tottenham and running the show, he was hoping, including the debt, for somewhere around £4billion and that type of money definitely diminishes the pool of genuine investors that are there.

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“And when Earick was trying for 100 per cent before ruling himself out, many at Tottenham said he never even showed proof of funds, so I think it’s highly unlikely that he will have the money or actual appetite beyond PR to buy off Levy.

“But if someone takes that 29 per cent of him, it’s a big stake, but like I say, it might be more for PR and exposure than control or power, because the Lewis family members running the club are absolutely adamant that they’re the one’s running the show and won’t be looking to sell the rest of the club any time soon.”

Jordan: Levy will sell, but at the right price

Former Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan also dismissed the prospect of a successful buyout for the speculated Spurs investors.

“I had a very brief exchange with Daniel, he was on a flight, just to get some sort of understanding of where he is in it all so that you can get some degree of ‘from the horse’s mouth’.

“His opinion, these guys don’t have the money and are creating noise, and publicity. So, whether that’s positioning from Daniel about the fact that he wants to call their bluff…

“I mean listen, let’s be clear, he will sell his shares in ENIC, that’s what he’ll do if the price is met, and take the opportunities that that kind of money will present to him.

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“But, by the same token, we’ve seen the Lewis family, in my view, put a full-court press on Daniel by suggesting things about the way that the business was run.

“That, to me, was a direct attack on Daniel’s integrity and efficiencies to be able to, perhaps, put him in a corner and maybe talk down the price of his shares, and make it difficult for him by making battles legally about who said what, when and why.

“But in this situation, I always think, Jim, and you’ve heard me say this many times over, the deals that get done are the ones that you hear about at the last minute.

“There’s a few exceptions, we know there’s a few exceptions, that we get to hear it from the beginning, from its gestation, to its end product.

“But most of the time when it’s big deals or football clubs being sold, or major shareholdings being sold, you tend to hear about it just as it’s about to be done or when it’s done.

“So in this instance, it looks like people are running around, running their mouths and don’t have the cash to do it.

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“It will be interesting to see whether the Lewis family ever pony up some money, maybe buy him out themselves.

“But again, the liquidity issues around that… this is not small money, Jim. This is big dough, this is big money, and there’s only a few people in the world who can write cheques like this.”

When asked about the reported £1bn that Levy is looking for, Jordan added: “It’s very respectable, isn’t it?

“But the fact of the matter is, is that I can’t confirm what Daniel is looking for, because what Daniel will try to do, like everyone else would do, is get the very best price he can.

“If someone knocks on your door, wants to buy your house, you don’t give them the price that you want or [are] prepared to sell for, you give them a price that you can try and get out of them. So I’m not going to forecast what Daniel will and won’t sell his shareholding for.

“What I can suggest, based upon the brief exchange I had with Daniel, is that he thinks that these guys maybe don’t have the dough and are running around making a nuisance of themselves by creating some noise.

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“Now, that might flush them out, it might be a position that Daniel wants to take by using the media to influence that, but that’s where it is. But let’s be clear, like everything, it’s for sale.

“Daniel Levy’s shareholding, in this business, is for sale. He’s not going to go back there, is he? He’s not going to go back to Spurs.

“I saw him before Christmas, you know, obviously, I don’t think he feels particularly happy about his treatment and spent a lot of time suggesting to me that a lot of people were very complimentary about his tenure at Spurs.

“I went through a roll call of people that were very complimentary about him because he did a good job, in my view. Might not have won as many things as he could do and should have done, perhaps at Spurs as a football club.

“But as a person that’s built a spaceship that maybe some other captain can fly to the moon, there is a huge amount of potential there.”