Stan Kroenke tonight took his biggest step yet towards controlling Arsenal by raising his equity stake in the club to 28.3%. The deal was struck privately with the Carr family, whose patriarch Richard Carr is a serving director of the club, and not through the open stockmarket. The family is an Arsenal dynasty, whose forebear Sir Bracewell Smith was a chairman of the club for 13 years to 1962.
It is a powerful message that Kroenke has been anointed as the man to take control of Arsenal, giving him a more influential presence than the Russian 25% shareholder Alisher Usmanov. It is less clear how much Kroenke paid for the stake, although a mid-point between the declared £8,500 and £10,500 per share would equate to a total £45m investment.
In keeping with his reputation as "Silent Stan", the American billionaire offered no explanation for his acquisition, although Arsenal's chairman, Peter Hill-Wood, said: "I would like to pay tribute to the long-standing commitment that the Carr family has shown. The board particularly wish to thank Richard Carr for his hard work and integrity since joining the board in 1981 and I am pleased to say that Richard will continue on as a director of the club."
But other investors are likely now to have serious concerns about how Kroenke, who only last month purchased 8% of Arsenal's equity from the one-time biggest single shareholder, Danny Fiszman, appears to have garnered strategic control over the club without mounting a full takeover bid. "There are minority shareholders who would like £10,500 a share for their stakes and if he can get control without paying up I am sure the City authorities will want to look at it," said a source close to one significant shareholder.
Nina Bracewell-Smith, who married in to the family whose name she took and owns 15.9% of Arsenal, has apparently been carefully manoeuvred out of the inner circle at the club when she was banished from the board last December. Unless Kroenke is obliged by regulators to mount a full takeover bid at today's price her enfeebled stake cannot now generate such sums as the £75m raised by David Dein when he sold equity of a similar size to Usmanov 20 months ago.
