John Textor has revealed that he attempted to buy out Crystal Palace outright but the offer “elicited no response”, so he now intends to sell his 45 per cent stake in the club to complete the Everton takeover.
The American was the third to be granted an exclusivity period by Blue Heaven Holdings, the company that owns Everton, last week and has been in Merseyside this week for further talks with owner Farhad Moshiri. Under Premier League rules, Textor must sell his shares in Palace before he can complete a deal and, according to the Guardian, he is considering two offers after investing around £150m in the south London club since 2021.
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But in a statement posted on his website on Thursday evening, the 58-year-old, who also owns French club Lyon through his company Eagle Football Holdings, claimed he had made a final attempt to pay off Palace’s three other co-owners – chairman Steve Parish and Textor’s compatriots Josh Harris and David Blitzer, who all own 10% of Palace’s shares. “It is true that we made an offer to purchase the remaining shares of Crystal Palace at a value that far exceeds the level of previous investments,” Textor wrote. “We did so in the firm belief that Palace has become a much more valuable club since 2021 and we respected our partners enough to offer a fair price regardless of the circumstances.”
“It is also true that our offer did not generate a response and we believe our Palace partners have the same desire to remain owners as we once did… so we have resumed our efforts to sell our shares. We have a significant number of parties active in our process, we have received strong leads from qualified buyers and we firmly believe we can complete a sale of our shares to move on to the next community we want to serve, embrace and enjoy.” Textor also confirmed that he is keen to “build a relationship with the Everton club and the community.”
Palace was valued at £624 million by Forbes in May. The situation is complicated by the fact that Textor’s stake entitles him to only one of four seats on the board, while Parish has the deciding vote.
It’s been a busy week on and off the pitch at Selhurst Park. Joachim Andersen has completed his £30m transfer to Fulham and Jordan Ayew has joined Leicester after Palace agreed an £8m transfer fee for the Ghanaian striker. They have expressed interest in signing Raheem Sterling on loan from Chelsea, although his £350,000-a-week wages would be a major obstacle.
