The times they are a changing……Arsenal to be sold.

There is a lot of movement on the Arsenal shares front as you probably already know. The following have been reported:

- Danny Fiszman sells 1% of his 25% holding for £4m to as yet an unknown buyer
- Ken Friar transfers 1m worth of shares to the chairman Hill-Wood for free
- ITV is reported to want to unload their 9,9% stake
- The share price has jumped to £6,675 from the £ 5,975 Fiszman sold his 1% a few days ago!

People involved in the financial world would interpret the above as pointing to a probable bid being expected. No one in his right mind pays 4m for a very small share in a company. The interpretation is that someone is buying shares in order to make a bid for the company. If he has already convinced Fiszman to sell 1% then probably they have agreed for the remainder of the shares to be bought later or for Fiszman to support the bid and remain on the Board.

The current structure of the shareholding is as follows:

Fiszman 24.0%
Bracewell-Smith 15.9%
Dein 14.6%
ITV 9.9 %
Hillwood 0.8 %
Friar 0.07%
Mystery buyer 1.0%
Others 33.73%

If we assume that the mystery buyer already has Fiszman’s 24% “pledged” then he only has to acquire ITV’s share to reach to more than the 30% he will need to launch a takeover bid!

Hold tight!