Amanda Staveley consortium agrees to acquire West Ham’s Gold family stake
A consortium fronted by Amanda Staveley has struck an agreement to acquire the Gold family’s 25.1 per cent shareholding in West Ham United, the relegated east London club now preparing for life in the Championship, reports BritPanorama.
The deal, announced on Saturday, follows the collapse of a previously arranged sale to Czech billionaire and existing West Ham shareholder Daniel Kretinsky.
Staveley’s group is understood to have tabled a superior offer for the entirety of the Gold stake, whereas Kretinsky’s earlier June arrangement had covered only 16 per cent of the family’s holding.
West Ham’s dramatic fall from grace — dropping out of the top flight merely two seasons after their Europa Conference League triumph in 2023 — forms the backdrop to an increasingly complex ownership battle.
Staveley, of course, is no stranger to high-profile football acquisitions, having spearheaded the Saudi-backed takeover of Newcastle United before departing her directorship there in 2024.
Vanessa Gold, daughter of the late former chairman David Gold, outlined the sequence of events in a statement released on Saturday. She confirmed that on 12 June she and Kretinsky had reached terms on a transaction that would have elevated his EP Group to the position of largest single shareholder in the club.
“Unfortunately, since that time the original deal and other alternatives that we have discussed could not be brought to fruition,” she said.
Having exhausted those avenues, Gold explained she had now concluded terms with a consortium comprising PCP Capital Partners — the firm led by Staveley and her husband Mehrdad Ghodoussi — alongside American private investment outfit Ashland Forest Capital Partners.
She acknowledged the pre-emption process remained outstanding but expressed a desire for transparency with supporters. “My ambition throughout this process has been to ensure the club has the right leadership and ownership to enable West Ham to achieve its potential and return to its rightful place in the Premier League,” she added.
The club itself moved swiftly to address the development, issuing a formal statement on Saturday evening. West Ham confirmed it was aware of Vanessa Gold’s announcement regarding what it described as a “provisional agreement” with Staveley’s consortium.
Crucially, the Hammers outlined that the proposed transaction must now navigate a pre-emption rights process spanning roughly two months. Under this mechanism, current shareholders are entitled to purchase their proportional allocation of shares in an initial round, with any unclaimed shares made available in a second round.
Until that process reaches its conclusion, the club stressed, the existing ownership structure remains entirely unchanged.
West Ham sought to reassure the fanbase that daily operations and preparations for the forthcoming Championship campaign continue unimpeded. The statement concluded by confirming the club would offer no further commentary whilst the pre-emption procedure runs its course.
Kretinsky’s camp responded with a pointed warning. A spokesperson for the Czech businessman, who retains a 27 per cent stake in the club, told The Times: “The agreement we had reached with the Gold family in June provided stability for the club at a crucial time.”
“This does the opposite. We will always act in the best interests of West Ham United and are reviewing all of our options, including exercising our pre-emption rights in full.”
That final remark carries considerable weight. Should Kretinsky elect to deploy his pre-emption entitlements to their fullest extent, he could potentially block Staveley’s consortium from completing the acquisition — or at the very least significantly reduce the size of the stake available to them.
With Kretinsky already the club’s second-largest shareholder, any move to expand his holding further would materially reshape the power dynamics at the London Stadium.
The ownership picture remains further complicated by the position of David Sullivan, whose 38.8 per cent stake means any party seeking majority control would ultimately need to secure his shares too. Sullivan stepped down as co-chairman in June following allegations of sexual abuse reported by The Times and BBC Panorama, which he has denied, calling them “factually incorrect and entirely false”.
On the pitch, the Hammers are gearing up for their Championship opener on 15 August, travelling to Turf Moor to face Burnley.
The club have yet to bring in any new signings this summer, though they have generated approximately £155 million through the combined sales of Mateus Fernandes and Crysencio Summerville. Jarrod Bowen, meanwhile, has been retained at the London Stadium.
How swiftly the ownership saga resolves itself may well determine the club’s capacity to reinvest those funds in their pursuit of an immediate return to the Premier League.
