Kretinsky creates a game of ‘Chess Ownership’

West Ham’s ownership conundrum takes another twist! Daniel Kretinsky this morning has announced that he has sold 2.2% of his stake to fellow Czech billionaire Jakub Havrlant, as he is set to buy the Gold family’s stake in full without surpassing the 50% rule, meaning he wouldn’t trigger the shareholders’ agreement clause, which was formed in 2021 and would’ve forced him to buy Sullivan’s 38.8% stake at an inflated price.

In doing this, Kretinsky has now gambled that he will be able to buy all of Gold’s family holdings without David Sullivan’s intervention, as he’s under the assumption that the Independent Football Regulator will step in and reject any increase Sullivan attempts to make.

Here we go, here’s where the difficulty starts!

Kretinsky’s sale of 2.2% will have to be offered to the existing shareholders due to pre-emptive rights, so David Sullivan, Vanessa Gold, Tripp Smith, Terry Brown and Daniel Harris would have first refusal in round one of the process. If no existing shareholder buys the 2.2% in 30 days of round one, there’s no round two, and that’s where Harvlant would be free to buy the 2.2% in question.

For the other chess game, which has Gold’s stake up for grabs - In a world where Daniel Kretinsky bought his maximum entitled amount (9%) and is the only shareholder to do this in round one, he would then technically be the only person available to purchase any stake in round two, which would offer the remaining stake (16.1%) up for grabs, meaning he would then take his total overall shareholding to 49.9%

The 49.9% means that he doesn’t trigger the inflated clause to buy David Sullivan’s shares but would still have majority control as he and his Czech friend would own 50.1% of West Ham together.

In this scenario, which is the most likely to happen, it would completely shut Amanda Staveley out from her Gold shares offer.

Buying David Sullivan’s shares is a dead end for her, as it wouldn’t be possible to gain a majority shareholding through Sullivan, and if she were to offer to buy Sullivan’s shares, which could theoretically launch the foundation of a possible hostile takeover for the club entierly, the offer she puts to Sullivan would allow Kretinsky to have matching rights, and the offer she would provide Sullivan would almost certainly be a lot less than the clause he would trigger by owning 50% of the club.

Kretinsky is officially playing Staveley at her own game, and with this Czech plan, it’s almost inevitable that Amanda Staveley will NOT be investing in West Ham.