West Ham get major takeover clue amid £1bn news from France

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West Ham supporters have received an indication about where the next big investor in their club might come from.

A chunk of the shares owned by Vanessa Gold, widow of the late David Gold, are for sale and Hammers vice-chairman Karren Brady recently visited the Middle East courting fresh investment.

Significantly, Daniel Kretinsky was able to engineer a clause that allows him to take a controlling stake in the club as part of his minority investment in 2021

And while the Czech billionaire is preoccupied with his takeovers of the Royal Mail and French IT firm Atos at present and appears unwilling to up his stake, that does indicates change is afoot behind the scenes.

The only significant update in recent months came when it was reported that NBA superstar Shaquille O’Neal was interested in acquiring a minority stake in the East London club.

However, if there is any validity to that claim, it will only be as a token investor – akin to the relationships LeBron James, Will Ferrell and Tom Brady have with Liverpool, Leeds and Birmingham respectively.

But developments in the wider world of football business may have just opened the pool of investors who could be tempted into a deal for West Ham.

Ligue 1 mass exodus could spark West Ham investment

The value of the Premier League’s domestic TV deal is beginning to plateau but has seen extraordinary growth in recent years, much to the benefit of West Ham and their peers.

That is in stark contrast to events currently taking place in France, where Ligue 1 is in danger of begining the 2024-25 campaign without a domestic broadcast partner.

French outlet L’Equipe have written that eight clubs are at risk of declaring bankruptcy as a direct result of facing no TV revenue over the next five-year rights cycle.

Ligue 1 was previously seeking a £1bn TV deal, but the market vale of their rights has plummeted.

Earlier this year, it was also widely reported that a number of club owners could leave Ligue 1, whose commercial appeal has also been damaged by the exits of Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe.

If this mass exodus materialises, West Ham will represent an attractive proposition for them to reinvest.

And the insular nature of football finance means that exploratory conversations will almost certainly have taken place.

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West Ham takeover: How much would an investor pay?

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to valuing a football club.

And while systems like the Markham Multivariate Model have been devised to arrive at a value, how much an investor would pay for West Ham is ultimately down to the market.

Private equity groups from the US are invariably linked whenever a Premier League club is up for sale.

And one investor from this market, Gregg Bettinelli of The Chernin Group, recently claimed West Ham would likely fetch upwards of £795m based on their annual revenue of around £230m.