FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football - Premier League - Tottenham Hotspur v Brighton & Hove Albion - Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London, Britain - May 25, 2025 Tottenham Hotspur fans waving flags inside the stadium Action Images via Reuters/Matthew Childs/File Photo
LONDON (Reuters) -Tottenham Hotspur said its majority shareholder has received and rejected two preliminary expressions of interest for a possible takeover and insists the Premier League club is not for sale.
Speculation about a possible change of ownership has increased since executive chairman Daniel Levy stepped down after almost 25 years in the post on Thursday.
A club statement late on Sunday said ENIC Sports & Developments Holdings Ltd had unequivocally rejected two separate preliminary expressions on interest, one from former Newcastle United shareholder Amanda Staveley's PCP International Finance Limited and another from a consortium led by Dr. Roger Kennedy and Wing-Fai Ng through Firehawk Holdings Limited.
ENIC owns 86.5% of the club's shares.
"As a consequence of ENIC's majority ownership interest in Tottenham Hotspur, were any offer made to acquire ENIC and complete, a mandatory offer would be required under Rule 9 of the (UK Takeover) Code to acquire the shares of Tottenham Hotspur not already held by ENIC," the statement said.
"The Board of the Club and ENIC confirm that Tottenham Hotspur is not for sale and ENIC has no intention to accept any such offer to acquire its interest in the Club.
"In accordance with Rule 2.6(a) of the code, each of PCP and the consortium is separately required, by not later than 5pm on 5 October 2025, to either announce a firm intention to make an offer for the company in accordance with Rule 2.7 of the code or announce that it does not intend to make an offer for the company, in which case their respective announcements will be treated as a statement to which Rule 2.8 of the Code applies."
The majority of ENIC is owned by British businessman Joe Lewis and his family, who also own the Tavistock Group, a private equity company.
In April, Tottenham named Vinai Venkatesham as their new chief executive, while Peter Charrington became the non-executive chairman, a newly formed role, following Levy's exit.
Announcing Levy's exit, Tottenham said there would be "no changes to the ownership or shareholder structure".
(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
