Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has refused to get drawn into the battle for boardroom power at the club.
Arsenal manager focuses on pitch, not boardroom battle off it
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has refused to get drawn into the battle for boardroom power at the club.
American Stan Kroenke remains the largest individual shareholder, with 29.9 per cent, but Russia-based Alisher Usmanov's Red & White Holdings group on Friday announced they had increased their stake to 26.07 per cent.
As the battle for control intensifies, Wenger wants to continue his policy of maintaining a distance between matters on the pitch and events behind the scenes.
He said: "It looks at the moment there are two main people fighting for the ownership of the club, Mr Kroenke and Mr Usmanov, because they are active on the market.
"Who will get the ownership, I don't know. I am like you, I don't know more than you about that and do not want to interfere.
Very important
"It is very difficult for me to be involved in that. It is very important that the club focuses on winning football games.
"As long as I can work as I want to, that is the most important thing."
Under City rules, anyone crossing the 30 per cent takeover threshold would be obliged to make a formal offer for the remainder of the shares at the highest price paid for stock during the past 12 months.
However, shareholders would not be forced to sell, so if the prospective buyer was unable to secure 50 per cent of the shares, they could not make another takeover offer for 12 months unless invited to do so by the company.
It has been suggested the continued investment by Kroenke - who is already an Arsenal director- is designed to fend off possible aggressive moves by Usmanov.
While Kroenke is a board member and must announce any new purchase to the Stock Exchange PLUS Market, where Arsenal's parent holding company are listed, Usmanov's group are only obliged to do so when they cross certain thresholds.
The last public disclosure from Red & White came in February, when they held 15,555 shares. The total is now 16,223, with Usmanov understood to have paid in the region of £5.6million to increase his holding.
Power balance
Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith, who left the board in December last year, could well hold the balance of power with her family's 15.9 per cent stake.
But while Arsenal continue to have positive dialogue with Red & White Holdings, earlier this year the board turned down Usmanov's proposed rights issue to generate new cash in favour of the status quo, which sees the club remain self-financing.
Usmanov had argued the scheme would help to reduce both the long-term debt of some £400million, which is mainly associated with the new stadium, and also hand Wenger extra transfer funds.
Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood made reference to Usmanov's proposal in his report to the shareholders.
"In the final analysis I believe it distils down to a decision about whether it is appropriate to raise money from shareholders to purchase the registrations and pay the wages of footballers," he said.
"This is not something that Arsenal has ever done previously in its history and it would be at odds with our ethos of running the club as a business which is self-sustaining and pays its own way in the world."
In September, the Gunners' parent holding company revealed an increase in turnover to £313.3million and a record profit after tax of £35.2million for the year ending 31st May.
