It's rather gone under the radar that the ten per cent of West Ham shares owned by the Icelandic connection in CB Holdings have been sold to a rich American, Albert 'Tripp' Smith. Uncle Albert is the senior managing director of Blackstone, the US investment capital firm that bought Smith's company GSO.
There's a very interesting piece on this in The West Ham Way, where Malcolm Atkins speculates whether this means Sullivan and Gold might ultimately sell out to Smith and co, though Smith states he has no plans to increase his investment. Atkins brings up the possibility that if athletics gets a new home at Birmingham the way might be clear for new American owners to buy the London Stadium and properly convert it for football purposes, with the penalties for selling not being too prohibitive for Sullivan and Gold.
No doubt some fans will be uneasy about US involvement, but we'll have to see what sort of owner Mr Tripp Smith is before making a judgement. But clearly he sees West Ham as a good investment opportunity and no doubt we will be hearing more about him soon.
1 comment:
Of course this is very exciting news..
While Albert 'Tripp' Smith may have only invested in 10% of West Ham right now, things may change in two very exciting ways..
Sooner or later, Mr Gold and Mr. Sullivan may wish to sell out (although there have been rumors that David Gold has some legal commitments tying him t the London Stadium for the next 4 years).
There is always the possibility that 'Trippy' may increase his investment in the club, but even more exciting, is the possibility of other very wealthy colleagues at Blackstone's following in the same way.
The 'potential' (?) bottom line, is that in sometime in the not to distant future, West Ham may be worth around 5 million (US) dollars or more, putting them on par with other clubs like Chelsea, Manchester Utd, Manchester Cit, Spurs etc.
This may allow the manager of the day to buy some of the best players in the world, and in doing so, keep us consistently in he top 4-6 in the EPL, as ell as competing in European Championship football.
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