I think it fitting that my first post should be about Arsenal, a club that could be argued epitomizes (in a positive sense) the intersection of footy and finance. Off we go!

Alisher Usmanov today announced that he had increased his stake in Arsenal F.C. in a no frills, single line press release.

“Red & White Holdings Ltd. today announces that it now holds a stake in excess of 26 percent in Arsenal,”

The exact number of shares owned by Usmanov’s company is 16,223 (26.07%), as released by the club today. This rivals American Stan Kroenke’s holdings of 18,624 shares (29.9%) as last disclosed in November. Kroenke’s most recent purchase of 10 shares on November 26 put him at the 29.9% takeover trigger barrier.

Doing some backwards maths, leads to some conflicting numbers for overall shares outstanding which is somewhat odd. Note that shares and percentages are taken from news sources, not my numbers.

• Red & White Holdings – 16,223 / 26.07% = 62,228 shares outstanding
• Stan Kroenke – 18,624 / 29.9% = 62,287 shares outstanding

According to Arsenal’s latest financial statements 62,217 shares are outstanding, so I am assuming the papers just didn’t want to publish full percentages. Here are the exact percentages that make the numbers foot.

• Red & White Holdings – 16,223 / 62,217 = 26.07486%
• Stan Kroenke – 18,624 /62,217 = 29.9339%

So far in the race for ownership, Kroenke is definitely ahead, especially given the size of the stake required to catch up. The question I have to ask though (and it seems more Premiership owners should have asked themselves this) is whether he paid a good price? How about Usmanov? I’ll have my analysis in the next post!