John Textor seemingly beaten to new Everton Football company registration after takeover reveal
John Textor may have been beaten to incorporating his planned new Everton holding company after Kieran Maguire reacted to the emergence of a new listing.
The finance expert responded via X on 13 September to Sky Sports Alan Myers’ now-deleted post showing the creation of Everton Football Group Limited at Companies House a day earlier, expressing doubt as to its validity.
Prospective new Toffees owner Textor revealed plans to buy the club separately from his Eagle Football Holdings company in a press conference at his Ligue 1 side Lyon on 11 September [Le Progres].
But after the subsequent emergence of the new company registered to 6 Dickens Court, Biggleswade Maguire pointed to its listed capital, writing along with a wide-eyed emoji: “Its a £1 company”.
Everton takeover from Farhad Moshiri takes new twist
It seems unlikely that Textor would have registered the vehicle for his grand plans on Merseyside at a nondescript address outside Cambridge.
But the American has taken an unconventional approach to his planned takeover so it possibly can’t be 100% ruled out.
His eagerness to speak publicly about his intentions have set him apart from his predecessors, but if it is a chancer who has snuck in to snap up the name of his intended holding company that might demonstrate one of the reasons why others have largely kept silent.
Textor’s aim to buy Everton independently of the company through which he owns a controlling interest in Lyon and Botafogo, as well as a crucial minority stake in Crystal Palace, has drawn scepticism in itself [The Esk, 12 September].
And until he offloads his 45% share at Selhurst Park a deal to buy out Farhad Moshiri looks next to impossible either way.
Textor himself revealed on his website (22 August) he’d instead made another attempt to become the full owner of Palace despite his push to own the Toffees, which may have contributed to a feeling among some around the takeover process that he isn’t a serious bidder and predecessor Dan Friedkin may instead return to the fold [Paul Brown, 29 August].
In other Everton news, the Toffees have given Sean Dyche a deadline to save his job as they are now ready to sack him.
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