The owner of Brentford, the Premier League football club, has engaged advisers to canvas offers of investment that could value one of the sport’s biggest recent success stories at more than £400m.
Sky News has learnt that Matthew Benham, who initially invested in the Bees in 2007, has hired Rothschild to oversee a process that could involve the sale of a controlling stake.
Rothschild is expected to kick off a formal process in the near future, with football industry experts anticipating that Brentford will become the latest in a string of top-flight clubs to draw interest from US-based investors.
Under Mr Benham’s stewardship, Brentford has become one of the most impressive clubs in English football, rising from the lower divisions to become a Premier League club in 2021.
It has also moved from its long-standing Griffin Park home to a new stadium near Kew Bridge.
One insider said that the current owner was open-minded about whether to sell a minority or majority shareholding in Brentford, but that any deal would be expected to value it at more than £400m.
If he does decide to offload a controlling stake, Mr Benham would want to remain as a minority investor for the long term, the insider added.
Such a price tag would reflect the soaring valuations of Premier League clubs even as uncertainty persists about the sport’s future financial arrangements.
Sky News revealed this week that the Premier League had called an emergency meeting of its 20 clubs for the end of this month in an effort to make progress towards a landmark settlement with the English Football League.
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The meeting on 29 February will come at around the same time that Lucy Frazer, the culture secretary, publishes the Football Governance Bill, which intends to hand a new watchdog powers to impose a financial redistribution agreement on the sport.
An additional gathering has also been scheduled for 11 March if it is required to get a sufficient number of top-flight clubs voting in favour.
The New Deal is projected to cost Premier League clubs anywhere between £837m and £925m over six years, with the final figure dependent upon the payment of an £88m sum for the current season.
Last week, Sky News revealed that Ms Frazer had urged English football’s 92 professional clubs to resolve their differences over the prospective settlement.
The culture secretary held separate talks with Premier League and English Football League (EFL) club executives last Thursday during which she told them not to wait until the new watchdog is established to put the finishing touches to the New Deal.
Talks over the agreement have been dragging on for many months.
In December, Richard Masters, the Premier League chief executive, notified clubs that it was calling a halt to further talks with the EFL because of divisions about the scale and structure of the proposed deal.
At a meeting with shareholders earlier this month, however, he suggested that negotiations had again become more constructive.
There has been significant unrest among Premier League clubs over the cost of the subsidy to the EFL, as well as the lack of certainty about the regulator’s powers and other financial reforms being driven forward by the Premier League.
Chelsea was sold last year to a consortium of US investors, while AFC Bournemouth also recently changed hands.
A spokesman for Brentford declined to comment on Rothschild’s appointment or its potential valuation, but reiterated a statement issued to Bloomberg News in December, which said: “Given the recent rise and growth of our club and the changing shareholder landscape within the Premier League, it’s no surprise that there has been interest in investment opportunities at Brentford FC.
“While Matthew Benham’s commitment to the club remains as strong as it ever was, it is only natural, and perhaps even essential, for us to carefully explore what new investment could potentially mean for the future of Brentford FC.
“We must not stand still and we remain absolutely determined to safeguard the long term future of Brentford FC and to remain competitive in the world’s most challenging and successful league.”
A former Post Office executive has said she was forced to block ex-boss Paula Vennells’ phone number after the ex-CEO called multiple times asking for help to avoid an independent inquiry into the Horizon IT scandal.
Lesley Sewell, previously the company’s head of IT, told the Post Office inquiry on Thursday that former CEO Ms Vennells had reached out to her four times between 2020 and 2021.
Ms Sewell said that she blocked Ms Vennells’ number due to discomfort with the contact.
In her witness statement to the probe, Ms Sewell said that one of Ms Vennells’ emails referenced the need to fill in memory gaps regarding Horizon and “Project Sparrow”, a committee addressing issues with forensic accountants who identified flaws in the accounting system.
“Paula contacted me on four occasions in total. I recall blocking her number after the last call as I did not feel comfortable with her contacting me,” Ms Sewell said.
“I had not spoken to Paula since I had left POL [Post Office Limited] in 2015.”
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According to Ms Sewell’s testimony, former chief executive Ms Vennells said that she had “been asked at short notice” to appear before a parliamentary select committee on “all things Horizon/Sparrow and need to plug some memory gaps”.
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Ms Sewell says Ms Vennells added: “My hope is this might help avoid an independent inquiry but to do so, I need to be well prepared.”
Ms Sewell, who struggled to contain her emotions and broke down in tears while giving her oath at the start of her inquiry evidence, was offered support and breaks as needed by chairman Sir Wyn Williams.
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Sir Wyn told the former executive: “Ms Sewell, I appreciate this may be upsetting for you, Ms Price will ask you a number of questions in a proper and sensible manner, but if at any time you feel you need a break, just let me know, all right?”
The Post Office has faced significant scrutiny following the ITV drama Mr Bates Vs The Post Office which highlighted the Horizon IT scandal.
The faulty system led to the prosecution of more than 700 sub-postmasters between 1999 and 2015, with many still awaiting full compensation despite government announcements regarding payouts for those with quashed convictions.
London City Airport will on Thursday name its first permanent female chief executive as it targets approval of an expansion plan that would create nearly 1,500 jobs.
Sky News understands that the Docklands airport has told staff that Alison FitzGerald, who has been co-CEO since January alongside finance chief Wilma Allan, has landed the role.
She replaces Robert Sinclair, who left in January after six years to become boss of the High Speed 1 rail link.
The airport is owned by a consortium of Canadian pension funds and Kuwait’s sovereign wealth fund, which have backed a plan to increase its annual passenger traffic from about 6.5m to 9m.
It is appealing against Newham Council’s rejection of a planning application that would see it extend operating hours at the site, which is popular with City commuters.
The airport’s proposals include no increase in the annual number of flights and, in what it claims is a first for a UK airport, a commitment that only cleaner, quieter, new generation aircraft will be allowed to fly in any extended periods.
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The appeal is being reviewed by the Independent Planning Inspector.
Its change of leadership makes London City the second of the capital’s airports to name a new CEO in quick succession, following the arrival at Heathrow of Thomas Woldbye last year.
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“London City delivers one of the best passenger experiences in the UK and I’m committed to building on this success even further,” Ms FitzGerald said.
Representatives of Thames Water’s multinational syndicate of shareholders are poised to quit as directors of its corporate entities after refusing to inject the billions of pounds of funding required to bail it out.
Sky News has learnt that a number of board members at companies connected to Kemble Water Finance, Thames’s parent, are expected to resign in the coming days.
City sources described the move as “the logical next step” after the owners of Britain’s biggest water utility said they would not commit more than £3bn to help upgrade its ageing infrastructure and shore up its debt-laden balance sheet.
A default on part of Thames Water‘s holding company debts last month has raised the prospect that the company is heading towards special administration, a form of insolvency that would effectively leave the government liable for managing a utility firm which serves nearly a quarter of Britain’s population.
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Thames Water under threat
Thames Water is owned by a group of sovereign wealth funds and pension funds from countries including Abu Dhabi, Australia, Britain, Canada and China.
A number of the investors are represented on boards which sit at various points in the group’s labyrinthine capital structure.
It was unclear on Wednesday whether Michael McNicholas, a representative of the giant Canadian pension fund Omers and who sits on the board of Thames Water Utilities Limited, was among those in the process of stepping down.
Along with the rest of the privately owned water industry, Thames Water faces a crucial moment next month when Ofwat, the industry regulator, publishes its draft determination on companies’ five-year business plans.
The draft rulings will be subject to negotiation before final versions are published in December.
Thames Water and a spokesman for Kemble declined to comment.