Delia - Will you sell to a wealthy foreign buyer?

[A Load of Squit 6,260]

I know someone else has published this link but they've missed the most interesting bit.

https://www.newstatesman.com/katemossmaninterview/2022/04/the-world-according-to-delia-smith

Will she ever sell to a wealthy foreign buyer? We are speaking before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, after which Roman Abramovich was forced to give up Chelsea. “Well, you can never say never. We get criticism, you know, when things aren’t going well: ‘They should give up now, let us have a nice rich whatever.’ But I wouldn’t be able to do it without being sanctioned by the supporters. Because I wouldn’t like to go to bed at night and know I’d given it to the wrong ones, and there’s a lot of very, very wrong ones in football.”

 

[cambridgeshire canary 7,798]

 

[A Load of Squit 6,260]

40 minutes ago, cambridgeshire canary said:

 

So you read the article and decided the quote about not being sexy was what you would highlight?

[Badger 2,745]

9 minutes ago, A Load of Squit said:

So you read the article and decided the quote about not being sexy was what you would highlight?

I think CC has the spirit of a tabloid editor in him 😃

[PurpleCanary 6,386]

2 hours ago, A Load of Squit said:

I know someone else has published this link but they've missed the most interesting bit.

https://www.newstatesman.com/katemossmaninterview/2022/04/the-world-according-to-delia-smith

Will she ever sell to a wealthy foreign buyer? We are speaking before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, after which Roman Abramovich was forced to give up Chelsea. “Well, you can never say never. We get criticism, you know, when things aren’t going well: ‘They should give up now, let us have a nice rich whatever.’ But I wouldn’t be able to do it without being sanctioned by the supporters. Because I wouldn’t like to go to bed at night and know I’d given it to the wrong ones, and there’s a lot of very, very wrong ones in football.”

 

She said in a previous recent interview that  selling up was not ruled out and that the supporters would have to approve any sale but curiously this up to date statement gets omitted by some posters in favour of a six-year-old quote...

[Diane 500]

Here's more from that interview. 

https://www.pinkun.com/sport/norwich-city/ncfc-canaries-delia-smith-new-statesman-interview-8893580

 

 

[chicken 3,086]

3 minutes ago, PurpleCanary said:

She said in a previous recent interview that  selling up was not ruled out and that the supporters would have to approve any sale but curiously this up to date statement gets omitted by some posters in favour of a six-year-old quote...

I don't think she's a fool. She knows that neither she nor MWJ are getting any younger. That's why I am yet to be convinced that any plan to hand over to Tom is anything more than ensuring security for the club. To ensure someone can at least hold the torch until someone suitable comes in to take it. Or perhaps they have a plan in place as mentioned elsewhere.

They've been too big a part of this club for too long to not want to leave a positive legacy. 

[essex canary 622]

7 hours ago, PurpleCanary said:

She said in a previous recent interview that  selling up was not ruled out and that the supporters would have to approve any sale but curiously this up to date statement gets omitted by some posters in favour of a six-year-old quote...

'Too old for money'

Perhaps that explains why after regailing the football authorities for the high charges faced by fans 6 years ago, the Club subsequently introduced away members charges, increased casual home charges by nearly 50% this season  and have recently approved 7% or so season ticket rises in the face of substantial cost of living rises.

 

[Son Ova Gunn 165]

18 hours ago, PurpleCanary said:

She said in a previous recent interview that  selling up was not ruled out and that the supporters would have to approve any sale but curiously this up to date statement gets omitted by some posters in favour of a six-year-old quote...

In order for a buyer to be put forward to fans, they first need approval from Delia, therefore the six year old statement remains the crucial one does it not?  If a buyer turns up on a camel, fans ain’t getting any say in the matter and therefore the ‘additional fans vote’ provides another hurdle to new ownership rather than more opportunity.

[lake district canary 4,830]

8 minutes ago, Son Ova Gunn said:

In order for a buyer to be put forward to fans, they first need approval from Delia, therefore the six year old statement remains the crucial one does it not?  If a buyer turns up on a camel, fans ain’t getting any say in the matter and therefore the ‘additional fans vote’ provides another hurdle to new ownership rather than more opportunity.

If a buyer turned up to Carrow Road on a camel, then I would rather suspect his wealth, if not his sanity.😃

Edited April 13, 2022 by lake district canary

[Disco Dales Jockstrap 1,959]

Delia's been conducting interviews left, right and centre trying to flog her new book so I thought it would be be valuable to put all in one place what she has actually said about Norwich in recent months:

 

Will she ever sell to a wealthy foreign buyer? We are speaking before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, after which Roman Abramovich was forced to give up Chelsea. “Well, you can never say never. We get criticism, you know, when things aren’t going well: ‘They should give up now, let us have a nice rich whatever.’ But I wouldn’t be able to do it without being sanctioned by the supporters. Because I wouldn’t like to go to bed at night and know I’d given it to the wrong ones, and there’s a lot of very, very wrong ones in football.”

 

What about Norwich City? No, she and Michael are not selling, though if someone reasonable with money to spend came along, they would ask the supporters to vote on it. 

 

She and her husband are both 80 with no children, so what happens to their 52 per cent stake in the Premier League club they have held since 1997 has become significant. There was talk of a family member inheriting, but that is not happening.

 

She said that the “billions” of other clubs made progress difficult for Norwich, but suggested that although no outside financier with similar funds had yet approached her about investing in the club, any investment of this kind would be decided by supporters.

 

The main points I take away from these interviews are:

• The plan to give their shares to Tom seems to have been canned
• They are not looking to sell...
• ...but if an investor did approach the club, they would put the decision to the fans in some kind of vote

OTBC

Edited April 13, 2022 by Disco Dales Jockstrap

[Indy 3,471]

I don’t like the racist undertone in mentioning Camels, it sums up their old outdated way of thinking! 
Why do we go back to this debate, it’s been done to death, they’re not selling, they will move it on to Tom, probably, as said some fans won’t like it, but the clubs set up not to be sold as detailed by Purple and others, and who really cares, they’re doing what they perceive to be the best for the club they own……just go with the ride…….if not get off.

Edited April 13, 2022 by Indy

[PurpleCanary 6,386]

47 minutes ago, Son Ova Gunn said:

In order for a buyer to be put forward to fans, they first need approval from Delia, therefore the six year old statement remains the crucial one does it not?  If a buyer turns up on a camel, fans ain’t getting any say in the matter and therefore the ‘additional fans vote’ provides another hurdle to new ownership rather than more opportunity.

The six-year-old statement was that they had no intention of selling and never even listened to offers. So this latest statement, envisaging the possibility of a sale, which would by necessity involve listening to offers, certainly overrides that. And the promise that the fans would have the final say - "But I wouldn’t be able to do it without being sanctioned by the supporters" - is certainly new.

The other point is that no-one needs Delia's approval to make an offer*. Cullum  didn't have that approval but went ahead and made one anyway. It is open to any millionaire or billionaire to make a hostile bid and go public, to win support from the fanbase.

*I am using 'offer' in the general sense of making a proposal which might fall short of a formal offer rather than necessarily the technical Takeover Code definition of 'offer'.

[PurpleCanary 6,386]

44 minutes ago, Disco Dales Jockstrap said:

Delia's been conducting interviews left, right and centre trying to flog her new book so I thought it would be be valuable to put all in one place what she has actually said about Norwich in recent months:

 

Will she ever sell to a wealthy foreign buyer? We are speaking before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, after which Roman Abramovich was forced to give up Chelsea. “Well, you can never say never. We get criticism, you know, when things aren’t going well: ‘They should give up now, let us have a nice rich whatever.’ But I wouldn’t be able to do it without being sanctioned by the supporters. Because I wouldn’t like to go to bed at night and know I’d given it to the wrong ones, and there’s a lot of very, very wrong ones in football.”

 

What about Norwich City? No, she and Michael are not selling, though if someone reasonable with money to spend came along, they would ask the supporters to vote on it. 

 

She and her husband are both 80 with no children, so what happens to their 52 per cent stake in the Premier League club they have held since 1997 has become significant. There was talk of a family member inheriting, but that is not happening.

 

She said that the “billions” of other clubs made progress difficult for Norwich, but suggested that although no outside financier with similar funds had yet approached her about investing in the club, any investment of this kind would be decided by supporters.

 

The main points I take away from these interviews are:

• The plan to give their shares to Tom seems to have been canned
• They are not looking to sell...
• ...but if an investor did approach the club, they would put the decision to the fans in some kind of vote

OTBC

I was about to do the same, so thanks!

[hogesar 10,763]

12 hours ago, essex canary said:

'Too old for money'

Perhaps that explains why after regailing the football authorities for the high charges faced by fans 6 years ago, the Club subsequently introduced away members charges, increased casual home charges by nearly 50% this season  and have recently approved 7% or so season ticket rises in the face of substantial cost of living rises.

 

Yeah, she's too old for money. The football club isn't.

[BigFish 2,282]

46 minutes ago, PurpleCanary said:

The other point is that no-one needs Delia's approval to make an offer*. Cullum  didn't have that approval but went ahead and made one anyway. It is open to any millionaire or billionaire to make a hostile bid and go public, to win support from the fanbase.

*I am using 'offer' in the general sense of making a proposal which might fall short of a formal offer rather than necessarily the technical Takeover Code definition of 'offer'.

Worth adding to that that no one needs Delia's approval to begin building a stake in the club from the other 48% of the shareholding

[Mello Yello 2,572]

She said that the “billions” of other clubs made progress difficult for Norwich, but suggested that although no outside financier with similar funds had yet approached her about investing in the club, any investment of this kind would be decided by supporters.

 

[Midlands Yellow 4,682]

Has anyone purchased her new book? I thought it may make an alternative Easter gift instead of chocolate eggs. 

[PurpleCanary 6,386]

1 hour ago, BigFish said:

Worth adding to that that no one needs Delia's approval to begin building a stake in the club from the other 48% of the shareholding

Quite true. There is the substantial Foulger family holding and if I remember correctly (which may not be the case) one of 14,000 or so shares from/of/by Jimmy Jones. But of course any serious buyer would need to persuade the members of the shadowy Nutty Nigel Corporation to sell its crucial stake.

[TIL 1010 5,246]

35 minutes ago, PurpleCanary said:

Quite true. There is the substantial Foulger family holding and if I remember correctly (which may not be the case) one of 14,000 or so shares from/of/by Jimmy Jones. But of course any serious buyer would need to persuade the members of the shadowy Nutty Nigel Corporation to sell its crucial stake.

Albert Jones ( son of the late Jimmy Jones ) holds 1200 shares and the family business Pleasure and Leisure Corporation Ltd hold a further 23,278 shares.

 

[PurpleCanary 6,386]

7 minutes ago, TIL 1010 said:

Albert Jones ( son of the late Jimmy Jones ) holds 1200 shares and the family business Pleasure and Leisure Corporation Ltd hold a further 23,278 shares.

 

Thanks. The number was only very dimly - and wrongly - remembered.

[BigFish 2,282]

38 minutes ago, TIL 1010 said:

Albert Jones ( son of the late Jimmy Jones ) holds 1200 shares and the family business Pleasure and Leisure Corporation Ltd hold a further 23,278 shares.

So this would be a good place for a Billionaire "Investor" to start to acquire a brridgehead share holding

[shefcanary 2,955]

1 minute ago, BigFish said:

So this would be a good place for a Billionaire "Investor" to start to acquire a brridgehead share holding

Interesting one; these two together is about 7%, which falls below the 10% reporting threshold, but I think if they did sell then I would suspect Smith & Jones would know their time was up, in that a long term supporter of the board would have signalled their dissatisfaction.  Can't see it happening mind, but .....

[chicken 3,086]

Edit: Already answered.

Edited April 13, 2022 by chicken
Already answered.

[chicken 3,086]

There is another thing about the 6yr old quote (it's older than that isn't it, that would be 2016 but I thought it was more 2014?) that I feel people forget - context.

During the period after relegation to league one, an agency was employed to actively search for new investment. Contrary to many people's claims, this search didn't turn up empty handed. It just didn't manage to find many suitable candidates. The best candidate we certainly know about was Tony Fernandes. 

He was invited to several games, was seen at these games and it was no secret he was a guest of our joint majority shareholders.

I don't think it was that big a secret either, of how they wished to approach a take-over, which was slowly and calculated with any prospective owner first buying shares and coming onto the board. Learning about the club, the ins and the outs, the business strategy, get to know the area, the key principles for a club like ours and how it interacts with the local communities within Norfolk, the fan base including international fans etc. This certainly happened as he admitted.

The suggestion, and perhaps evidence, suggests that Fernandes wanted something much faster. The evidence was that he then bought QPR, having failed to buy West Ham, in 2011. He'd tried to buy West Ham before speaking to our club and bought QPR after. What he says now about his early seasons as the new owner of QPR is interesting.

Why do I think this is relevant and worth noting for context? Without question Delia and Michael love this club, the latter a lifelong fan. They have been a part of the club for 25+ years. They want to make sure that they don't just palm it off, and wanted to help Fernandes, or any new owner, to at least to get to know our history and the way we currently work. IMHO, it's also a good way to test the intent of any new owner. Would they be Glazers, or more respectful of the hard work gone in to making the club a good solid base to progress from.

If you had spent much money, time and effort into trying to do the best thing by everyone, you could perhaps understand that in one interview perhaps some frustration was expressed. No, not looking to sell now. Perhaps in the same way that folks will get stupid lowball offers and time wasters on houses, cars, etc they are trying to sell. It can grind you down.

 

Edited April 13, 2022 by chicken

[PurpleCanary 6,386]

2 hours ago, shefcanary said:

Interesting one; these two together is about 7%, which falls below the 10% reporting threshold, but I think if they did sell then I would suspect Smith & Jones would know their time was up, in that a long term supporter of the board would have signalled their dissatisfaction.  Can't see it happening mind, but .....

Shef, I make the combined Foulger and Jimmy Jones holdings to be 120,000, and just under 20 per cent of the total. But shy of the 30 per per cent at which an offer has to be made for all shares.

[Mello Yello 2,572]

I personally only saw Tony Fernandes once at Carrow Road during a game. I recall at said game Mr Fernandes was sitting on the back row of the Director's Box after having spent the majority of that day with our then Chief Exec David McNally.....

Our then Chief Exec was rather keen to impress Mr Fernandes regarding prospective investment from the Air Asia businessman - and which during his arranged visit, various aspects of the local media TV etc, were present and covering Mr Fernandes and Mr McNally's touring areas of the club and its training facilities.....

Our Majority Shareholding duo at the game that Mr Fernandes was invited to attend, were seated in their usual seats on the right side front row pitch facing corner of the Director's Box.....Now in my opinion (and to be polite and maybe show common courtesy) why wasn't the prospective investor guest sitting near to or alongside the majority shareholding duo for that game?.....

 

 

 

 

 

[Midlands Yellow 4,682]

13 minutes ago, Mello Yello said:

I personally only saw Tony Fernandes once at Carrow Road during a game. I recall at said game Mr Fernandes was sitting on the back row of the Director's Box after having spent the majority of that day with our then Chief Exec David McNally.....

Our then Chief Exec was rather keen to impress Mr Fernandes regarding prospective investment from the Air Asia businessman - and which during his arranged visit, various aspects of the local media TV etc, were present and covering Mr Fernandes and Mr McNally's touring areas of the club and its training facilities.....

Our Majority Shareholding duo at the game that Mr Fernandes was invited to attend, were seated in their usual seats on the right side front row pitch facing corner of the Director's Box.....Now in my opinion (and to be polite and maybe show common courtesy) why wasn't the prospective investor guest sitting near to or alongside the majority shareholding duo for that game?.....

 

 

 

 

 

So he wouldn’t see the hip flask in action? 

[Badger 2,745]

13 minutes ago, Mello Yello said:

I personally only saw Tony Fernandes once at Carrow Road during a game. I recall at said game Mr Fernandes was sitting on the back row of the Director's Box after having spent the majority of that day with our then Chief Exec David McNally.....

Our then Chief Exec was rather keen to impress Mr Fernandes regarding prospective investment from the Air Asia businessman - and which during his arranged visit, various aspects of the local media TV etc, were present and covering Mr Fernandes and Mr McNally's touring areas of the club and its training facilities.....

Our Majority Shareholding duo at the game that Mr Fernandes was invited to attend, were seated in their usual seats on the right side front row pitch facing corner of the Director's Box.....Now in my opinion (and to be polite and maybe show common courtesy) why wasn't the prospective investor guest sitting near to or alongside the majority shareholding duo for that game?.....

Perhaps they guessed what a disappointing owner he would be?

Next year will be their 7th consecutive season in the Championship. he did get them up one year but they went straight back down again!

So there they sit, mid table with debt of over £50 million. Some on here would be trying to organise a banner proclaiming "Tony Out" with a record like that - especially as he has remodelled the club on the basis of "financial sustainability." 

[Mello Yello 2,572]

1 minute ago, Badger said:

Perhaps they guessed what a disappointing owner he would be?

Next year will be their 7th consecutive season in the Championship. he did get them up one year but they went straight back down again!

So there they sit, mid table with debt of over £50 million. Some on here would be trying to organise a banner proclaiming "Tony Out" with a record like that - especially as he has remodelled the club on the basis of "financial sustainability." 

Perhaps? Maybe? Who Knows?.....The Majority Shareholding Duo probably do.....We'll never know.....eh?.....