The Lewis family trust, the majority owners of Tottenham Hotspur, have injected £100 million ($133 million) of new capital into the English Premier League soccer club through parent company ENIC Sports & Development Holdings.
The North London-based side said the equity injection “will further strengthen the club’s financial position and equip the club’s leadership team with additional resources to continue the focus on driving long-term sporting success.”
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Tottenham added that the additional capital “is part of the Lewis family’s ongoing commitment to the club and its future”, with recent leadership changes leading to question marks about their long-term ownership.
Last month, Daniel Levy stepped down from his role as executive chairman of Tottenham after nearly 25 years.
The Lewis family put a new leadership team in place with Peter Charrington, who was brought on to the board in March, stepping into a newly created role of non-executive chairman.
As part of what the club called its “succession planning”, the team has made several senior appointments in recent months, most notably hiring Vinai Venkatesham as chief executive.
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By GlobalDataVenkatesham, who was appointed in April, will grow further in influence, and one of the team’s principal goals is to attract fresh investment.
Notably, there were no changes to the ownership or shareholder structure of the club.
On the Lewis family’s capital injection, Charrington said: “As I stated a few weeks ago, our focus is on stability and empowering the management team to deliver on the club’s ambitions.
“I know the Lewis family are also ambitious for the future. This capital commitment reflects that ambition and I would like to thank them for their ongoing support. We will continue to do all we can to ensure that Vinai and his team are supported in the best way possible to take this Club forward.”
Levy took over from Alan Sugar as the chairman in February 2001 after Joe Lewis bought the club through ENIC.
The club’s ownership structure shifted in October 2022 when Lewis stepped back from his publicly stated position. He ceased to be a part of the Lewis family trust, transferring it to unnamed members of his family.
Charrington, a former chief executive of Citi Private Bank, is a director of Enic. He has also been a senior partner at Nexus Luxury Collection in the Bahamas, an operator of private member clubs and resorts, which was co-founded by Lewis.
Since Levy’s departure, Tottenham have knocked back several takeover approaches, with the club publicly stating that it is not up for sale.
At the beginning of September, ENIC rejected two expressions of interest, one from PCP International Finance Limited, an investment company led by prominent executive Amanda Staveley, and the other from a consortium that was led by businessman Dr. Roger Kennedy and financial services executive Wing-Fai Ng via the Firehawk Holdings investment fund.
In recent weeks, a third expression of interest was launched by a consortium led by tech entrepreneur and former DJ Robert Earick, founder of the blockchain-based venture capital firm Redacted RnD, and includes investors from North America’s elite National Football League and National Basketball League.
Reportedly, someone close to the Spurs ownership group called the interest “unsolicited and unnecessary”.
The consortium now has until October 24 to lodge an official takeover bid or confirm its intention to bow out from the running, after Spurs confirmed its rejection of the expression of interest to the London Stock Exchange.
ENIC owns 86.58% of Tottenham, with the remaining percentage split between a variety of minority shareholders, and if a firm were to be successful in acquiring ENIC's stake, it would be required to make a mandatory offer for the remainder of the club's shares.
As well as ENIC, Lewis owns private equity investment company Tavistock Group.
Meanwhile, 29.88% of ENIC is still owned by Levy, who developed Tottenham into one of the richest clubs in the world during his long tenure.
According to Deloitte’s most recent Football Money League, published for the 2023-24 season, the club was the ninth-richest in the world with an annual turnover of £512 million.
