Another Reference to QPR's Ground & Paul Kemsley - Times Profile of Kemsley as Prospective Spurs Buyer

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The Times - February 03, 2007
Tottenham new focus for would-be investors
Gary Jacob and Sarah Butler
# Share price booms amid speculation
# Club's valuation soars to £75 million
Tottenham Hotspur are being tipped as the next takeover target for private investors, sending shares soaring by 60 per cent in the past four months.
Paul Kemsley, the Tottenham vice-chairman, is believed to be among the prospective buyers and has privately expressed an interest in purchasing the 32.7 per cent share held by Enic, the sports investment company that is the largest stakeholder in the club.
Kemsley, a property developer, is thought to have approached Mike Ashley, the billionaire who owns Sports World, the UK’s largest sports retailer, for help with the funding. The share price closed at 81p yesterday, compared with 51p in late September, valuing the club at £75 million. The price briefly reached 82.42p in December and is generally at its highest level since November 1998, when it rose to 81.43p.
Investors have looked more favourably on football clubs in the past year, encouraged by the boom that is expected to follow the next television contract, which is worth an average of 65 per cent more for top-flight clubs, starting next season. In recent months, Aston Villa and West Ham United have gone into new ownership, Manchester City and Newcastle United were the subject of takeover talks and Liverpool hope to secure a £450 million investment from George Gillett Jr, an American tycoon.
It is possible to acquire a large stake easily in Tottenham because their shares are not diversely held. Sir Alan Sugar, the former chairman, has a 13 per cent stake through Amshold Limited, while Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the founder of easyJet, has a 9 per cent stake through Hodram Inc.
Tottenham have attracted a number of potential investors in recent years, but they have been put off by an excessive valuation of the club by Daniel Levy, the chairman. Levy and Kemsley are involved in a property development company, Rock Investment Holdings, which has a spread of commercial and residential sites around England. Kemsley is also a director of Selhurst Park Limited, which owns the Crystal Palace ground, but denies that he has taken over the mortgage of Loftus Road, Queens Park Rangers’ ground. Kemsley was unavailable for comment yesterday.
Kemsley’s possible backer, Ashley, is ranked No 54 in The Sunday Times Rich List with a fortune estimated at £1 billion. Ashley, 42, recently stepped out of the shadows with the appointment of investment banks to help to launch a £2 billion flo ation of his company.
Aside from the sports chain, he owns a host of well-known brands, including Lillywhites, the Piccadilly Circus sports store, Dunlop Slazenger, Karrimor and Kangol. He also owns a 29.4 per cent stake in Blacks Leisure, the outdoor clothes and equipment retailer, and small stakes in rivals JJB Sports and John David Group, the owner of JD Sports.
Turnover of the group is unknown but said to be far above the £900 million indicated by the latest accounts filed at Companies House, while profits are likely to have more than doubled from the £75 million recorded then. Ashley would not comment yesterday.javascript:void(0)
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Previously:
Daily Mail - Tottenham man is soccer's Mr Fixit
22:41pm 1st February 2007
The precarious business of running a football club outside the money-laden Premiership is proving lucrative for Tottenham vice-chairman and property multi-millionaire Paul Kemsley.
Kemsley, who runs Rock Investments, also owns Crystal Palace’s Selhurst Park ground, which he bought from Ron Noades for £12million as a favour for Palace owner Simon Jordan, who feared Noades might have wanted more money if he had done the deal himself.
Although he will soon sell on to Jordan, he has also received a number of requests for help from other clubs, despite Premier League regulations preventing directors from having the power to "determine or influence the management or administration of another Premiership or Football League club".
One of those pleas has been from QPR, although Kemsley emphatically denies the rumours sweeping the west London club that he has already taken over their Panama-based ABC Corp £10m loan, which is mortgaged through the club’s Loftus Road ground. Kemsley, also masterminding property regeneration around White Hart Lane, has made rather less progress with his horse racing venture with great mate Harry Redknapp. Their horse flopped and Kemsley, despite his great wealth, turned down a second partnership.
Kemsley’s friendship with Redknapp has led to him being linked to the Betfair £16m gamble on Harry returning to Portsmouth that has been the subject of an FA investigation.
But the combined profit of all the bets staked was only around £800,000 — small change to Kemsley, who hasn’t been interviewed during the probe.
Sport Five, the company marketing Euro 2008 TV rights on behalf of UEFA, are adopting a high-risk policy in the UK market of splitting matches into unequal packages. This could lead to the end of BBC and ITV combining for major tournaments. Also causing tension is the asking price of near £100m, more than double paid for Euro 2004, especially as England’s qualification is by no means certain.
FA chairman Geoff Thompson will have to relinquish his UEFA executive committee seat if he wants to become the Home Nations FIFA representative, replacing Scotsman David Will, who retires in May. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, who have all put forward FIFA candidates, are united on this issue even if they can’t agree ahead of their meeting on Monday what the voting procedure will be to avoid a stalemate.

Internet ticket exchange site Viagogo, which has official sponsorship status with Manchester United and Chelsea, was described as an "absolute disgrace" by leading sports lawyer Nick Bitel after hundreds of black market Twickenham autumn international tickets were openly traded by the company. So what have Leicester and Wasps done? Signed up with Viagogo as official partners to trade unwanted seats from season ticket holders.
. Daily Mail