Football finance expert Kieran Maguire has recently discussed the impending sale of League One side Sunderland.
It has recently been reported that Stewart Donald has agreed to sell the Black Cats to a consortium which is led by minority Sunderland shareholder Juan Sartori and Kyril Louis-Dreyfus (per The Guardian).
The impending sale comes just two and a half years after Donald initially took over the club from its former owner Ellis Short (per BBC).
It is stated in The Guardian’s report, though, that Donald ‘looks set’ to retain 15% of his shares in the club following the sale of Sunderland to the consortium.
During the latest episode of The Price of Football podcast, Maguire discussed the impending sale of the club and speculated as to why Donald is keeping a stake.
He said: “A good price for Sunderland would be somewhere between £20-25m. It looks as if the agreed price is £22m, which I think is probably a better approximation of the value.
“Stewart Donald is going to keep, I think, 15%, and Charlie Methven, he would still be owning 5%. So, they would be minority shareholders.
“Why would they be doing that? Well, if the Swiss billionaire does put a lot of money in and Sunderland rise through the divisions, if they get back to the Premier League, then I suspect that both Methven and Donald would be selling out their remaining stakes at a much tidier profit.”
TIF Thoughts on what Kieran Maguire said about Sunderland’s impending sale…
As can be seen in what the football finance expert had to say, he believes that Donald and Methven are keeping a stake in the club in the hope that they can sell them for more at some point in the future.
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When Donald and Methven took over at the Stadium of Light, they did so by using only £5m of Donald’s own money and £32m of Sunderland’s parachute payments (per Daily Mail).
So, even if the club is sold for £22m, as Maguire mentioned, which is £15m less than the £37m that was paid when it was bought from Short, the club’s current owners will still make a £17m profit.
It seems, therefore, that while the Black Cats have not improved in terms of their league position under Donald, he will still have done well financially out of owning Sunderland.