The proposed £90m takeover of Crystal Palace appears to be nearing completion, with a group of American investors led by Josh Harris reportedly in “late-stage discussions” with the Premier League side.
Harris, who bought the NBA franchise Philadelphia 76ers in 2011 and the NHL side New Jersey Devils alongside his partner David Blitzer in 2013, has been interested in purchasing an English football club for some time and first held talks with Palace’s owners, CPFC 2010, during last year’s pre-season tour of America.
A report in the Financial Times on Friday suggested that the deal is now close to being completed, with a group of private equity executives from Harris’s capital investment firm Apollo Global Management and Blackstone, the world’s largest private equity firm, hopeful that the deal could be signed in the next few days. Palace declined to comment when approached on Friday.
However, it is understood that Harris – who is worth a reported $2.6bn, according to Forbes – and Blitzer would take a majority shareholding, with the current co-owner Steve Parish reducing his stake to 15% and the other three partners in CPFC 2010 reducing theirs to 5%. A further group of seven investors – the US businessmen David Novak, Bret Pearlman, Marc Leder, Arthur Wrubel, Anthony Ignaczak, Rodgers Krouse and Matthew Hulsizer – will also take a share in the club.
According to the FT report, the group has been following Palace’s progress for much of this year and has been in on-and-off negotiations with Parish, although those talks were put on hold at around the end of last year when the club sacked Neil Warnock after slipping into the relegation zone.
A recent revival under the new manager Alan Pardew has moved Palace towards Premier League safety for next season, with an eight-point gap over 18th-placed Queens Park Rangers before the two sides’ meeting at Selhurst Park on Saturday.
Palace were bought out of administration by the CPFC 2010 consortium – comprised of Parish and fellow wealthy fans Martin Long, Steve Browett and Jeremy Hosking – in the summer of 2010. Since then they have galvanised the club and steered it out of the Championship through the play-offs in 2013. There was no urgent financial need to sell from the current owners before talks with Harris began.
