Exit: the club is third-largest shareholder, Lady
Bracewell-Smith, has unexpectedly left its board.
A £50million battle for the future of Arsenal loomed
after a key shareholder left the football club, setting the scene
for a potential bidding war which could ultimately leave it in
foreign ownership.
Nina Bracewell-Smith, the businesswoman whose husband's family
has a 70-year connection to the club, unexpectedly left the board
and is now free to sell her 15.9 per cent stake to Russian steel
magnate Alisher Usmanov.
The sudden departure of Lady Bracewell-Smith, the third largest
shareholder whose stake is worth about £50 million, is said to have
followed a row at last Thursday's board meeting.
Another director, Richard Carr, who is related to her by
marriage and owns 4.4 per cent of shares, also left the main
board.
The resignations end a "lockdown" agreement among main
shareholders under which they agreed not to sell to outsiders - a
move designed to keep the club as the only one of the top four in
British ownership.
It was intended principally to block Mr Usmanov, whose company
Red and White Holdings owns 24 per cent of Arsenal, making him the
largest individual shareholder.
Mr Usmanov bought shares from David Dein, the former Arsenal
vicechairman who resigned in April last year and who now works for
him.
A spokesman for Red and White said: "We are watching
developments with interest." mr Usmanov has said in the past he did
not wish to bid for control, but might be tempted if enough shares
became available.
Pitch battle: Alisher Usmanov, above with his wife Irina, is
Arsenal¿s biggest individual shareholder with 24 per cent.
Although Lady Bracewell-Smith said in October that she
had "never considered" selling her shares, there have been rumours
of her disaffection and willingness to follow Mr Dein's
example.
There are suggestions she was unhappy with the choice of Ivan
Gazidis, who takes over as the club's chief executive next month,
and that she felt marginalised in the power structure, particularly
over the club's marketing in India, her home country.
Arsenal chairman Peter Hill Wood told the club's website today:
"Lady Nina is no longer representing the club and therefore is
released from the lockdown. I don't know for certain what she wants
to do with her shares. We hope that she would remain a shareholder
but she has not spoken to me about it lately.''
Mr Hill Wood said "a number of the board'' had indicated their
interest in buying more shares. He was thought to be referring to
the American Stan Kroenke, who holds a stake of about 12 per cent
and became a non-executive director in September. If he were to buy
the shares, he would become the majority shareholder with a 27.9
per cent stake.
However, if Mr Usmanov bought Lady Bracewell-Smith's stake, he
could pass the 30 per cent mark which would force a formal takeover
bid. Lady Bracewell-Smith, who was born in New Delhi, has been a
non-executive member of the Arsenal board since 2005.
She obtained her shares from her husband, Sir Charles Bracewell-
Smith, who inherited them from his grandfather, Sir Bracewell
Smith, chairman of the club between 1948 and 1962. The family
wealth is linked to hotels, having once owned the Ritz, and the
Sheraton Hotel in Park Lane. Arsenal fans will be hoping the unrest
will not make matters worse in a season of ups and downs. They face
Liverpool at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.
A City analyst who specialises in deals in the leisure sector
said: "With 20 per cent of the shares now potentially up for grabs
an almighty tussle is on the cards and Arsenal could be sold."
