Farhad Moshiri remains intent on increasing his stake in Everton by no later than next month.
The club's majority shareholder bought more shares in September to take control of 68.6% of the club.
In a statement last year, Everton said they expected the billionaire's shareholding to increase to 77.2% by no later than July.
And the ECHO understands that Moshiri is still planning for that to happen on the time-scale mapped nine months ago.
It is thought that an offer could be made to Lord Grantchester, who owns around 8% of shares at Everton, to help push the Iranian businessman towards his target shareholding.
Moshiri has seen his estimated wealth rise to £1.5bn in the past year, according to the recent Sunday Times Rich List, after he improved his shareholding from 49.9% to over 68%.
