Aliko Dangote Means to Buy Arsenal FC

Despite the first strive of the Africa’s richest man to acquire a stake in the Arsenal Football Club in 2010 was rebuffed by the owners, the philanthropist said he’s still working towards buying the club.

While on a journey from Addis Ababa to Lagos on Friday 1^st May, 2015, Dangote told Bloomberg and expressed hope that his new strategy would enable him buy the north London club at a price the owners won’t want to resist. “I still hope, one day at the right price, that I’ll buy the team. I might buy it, not at a ridiculous price but a price that the owners won’t want to resist. I know my strategy.”

He is positive that his new bid for the control of Arsenal will likely come in a few years after he is done with current investments and have taken his business to a certain level.

“We have $16 billion-worth of investments in the next few years. Right now I want to take my own business to a certain level. Once I finish on that trajectory, then maybe an offer will follow,” he said.

Dangote is a staunch fan of the north London club. Dangote is rated to be worth $15.7bn and has interests in cement, sugar and flour. He is currently investing $11bn in a 650,000 b/pd oil refinery in Ondo State, and $2.5bn in gas pipelines running from the Niger-Delta area to Lagos.

Arsenal is among the most successful clubs in England. Having won the English League 13 times, it kept their hope of finishing in second place this season behind league winners Chelsea alive by beating Hull 3-1 on Monday. The Gunners also hope to retain the FA Cup which they won last season after going eight years without a trophy. Arsenal Holdings Plc is valued at £988m ($1.49 bn).

American, Stan Kroenke, who is also owner of the National Football League’s St. Louis Rams, and rated at $5.6bn, holds 67 per cent of Arsenal, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Red & White Sec Ltd controlled by Uzbek billionaire Alisher Usmanov and Farhad Moshiri, owns 30 per cent.

If his new bid sails through, Dangote will be the first African owner of a club in the EPL where billionaires like Russia’s Roman Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea, and Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan, who controls Manchester City, have acquired teams.

Dangote is among the club’s fans who believe Arsene Wenger, who has managed it since 1996, has done well from a financial standpoint but was quoted as saying Wenger “needs to change his style a bit. They need new direction.”