Powerleague shrugs off new bid talk
POWERLEAGUE, Britain’s biggest operator of five-a-side football, yesterday shrugged off rumours that sports fashion retailer JD Sports was plotting to gatecrash its £42.5m takeover.
Earlier this month Powerleague agreed to a takeover offer from its biggest shareholder, Patron, which owns 29 per cent.
Its executive chairman, Claude Littner, a close friend and colleague of Apprentice star Lord Sugar, stands to make £2.6m from the deal.
Littner, a former Amstrad and Tottenham Hotspur chief executive, led a management buyout of Powerleague from investment firm 3i in 2003 and owns 6.1 per cent.
Littner is set to resign on completion of the deal, but will work as a consultant for six months. Current chief executive Sean Tracey, who owns four per cent of the firm, will stay and exchange his stake for shares in Patron.
Patron took a stake in Powerleague last year when it bought 29 per cent of the company.
It was founded in 1999 by Keith Breslauer – the former head of the principle finance unit of Lehman Brothers – the collapsed US investment bank. It has invested about €1.7bn (£1.56bn) on behalf of institutional clients in Britain and America and is particularly famed for its property investments.
Powerleague shareholders are due to vote on the deal early next month.
The latest results from Powerleague showed pre-tax profits edging up four per cent to £5.4m in the year to 4 July.