{"id":19423,"date":"2015-05-05T04:04:46","date_gmt":"2015-05-05T04:04:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/nigeria-s-dangote-still-wants-to-buy-arsenal\/"},"modified":"2015-05-05T04:04:36","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T04:04:36","slug":"nigeria-s-dangote-still-wants-to-buy-arsenal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/nigeria-s-dangote-still-wants-to-buy-arsenal\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria\u2019s Dangote Still wants to buy Arsenal"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/figure>\n

{Africa\u2019s richest man, Aliko Dangote, said he still wants to buy English Premier League soccer team Arsenal even after he was rebuffed by its owners in 2010.}<\/p>\n

Nigeria\u2019s Dangote, an Arsenal fan worth $15.7 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, discussed buying a stake in the club five years ago before talks with the owners fell through, he said. Since then his wealth has grown more than sevenfold.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still hope, one day at the right price, that I\u2019ll buy the team,\u201d Dangote, 58, said in an interview as he traveled on a plane owned by one of his companies between the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa and the Nigerian commercial hub of Lagos on May 1. \u201cI might buy it, not at a ridiculous price but a price that the owners won\u2019t want to resist. I know my strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arsenal is one of England\u2019s most successful clubs, having won 13 top flight league titles in the country, the most after Manchester United and Liverpool. Arsenal Holdings Plc., the owner, trades on the ICAP Securities & Derivatives Exchange, or ISDX, and is valued at 988 million pounds ($1.49 billion).<\/p>\n

A successful bid would make Dangote the first African owner of a club in a league where billionaires including Russia\u2019s Roman Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea, and Abu Dhabi\u2019s Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan, who controls Manchester City, have acquired teams.<\/p>\n

Stan Kroenke, worth $5.6 billion and owner of the National Football League\u2019s St. Louis Rams, holds 67 percent of Arsenal, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Red & White Sec Ltd., controlled by Uzbek billionaire Alisher Usmanov and Farhad Moshiri, owns 30 percent.<\/p>\n

Cement, Gas<\/p>\n

Dan Tolhurst, a spokesman for the London-based club, declined to comment as did Rollo Head, a spokesman for Usmanov in London. Tomago Collins, a spokesman for Kroenke in Denver, did not immediately respond to e-mails requesting comment.<\/p>\n

Dangote has interests in sugar and flour and controls Dangote Cement Plc, Nigeria\u2019s biggest publicly traded company. He is investing $11 billion in a 650,000 barrel-a-day oil refinery near Lagos and as much as $2.5 billion in gas pipelines running to the city from Nigeria\u2019s oil-rich Niger River delta region.<\/p>\n

His wealth has fallen by $2.7 billion this year, the sixth-most globally, according to the Billionaires Index.<\/p>\n

Dangote, who ranks 55th on the index, said he\u2019s too busy with existing projects to mount a bid now.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have $16 billion-worth of investments in the next few years,\u201d he said. \u201cRight now I want to take my own business to a certain level. Once I finish on that trajectory, then maybe\u201d an offer will follow.<\/p>\n

Limited Success<\/p>\n

Most English Premier League matches are broadcast live in Nigeria, Africa\u2019s most populous country, by Supersport, a satellite television channel owned by South Africa\u2019s Naspers Ltd.<\/p>\n

Arsenal won the FA Cup, England\u2019s main knockout tournament, last year, its first major trophy since 2005, and is in the final of the same tournament this year. Over the last decade London rivals Chelsea have won the English league four times as well as the European Champions League and several other trophies.<\/p>\n

Arsene Wenger, who has managed Arsenal since 1996, has been criticized by fans including Rwanda\u2019s President Paul Kagame for the team\u2019s limited success in the last decade. Dangote said he is often too nervous to watch their games. The team beat Hull 3-1 on Monday with two goals from Chilean striker Alexis Sanchez.<\/p>\n

While Wenger has managed the club well from a financial standpoint, he \u201cneeds to change his style a bit,\u201d said Dangote. \u201cThey need new direction.\u201d
\n{{
\nSource: Bloomberg}}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Africa\u2019s richest man, Aliko Dangote, said he still wants to buy English Premier League soccer team Arsenal even after he was rebuffed by its owners in 2010.} Nigeria\u2019s Dangote, an Arsenal fan worth $15.7 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, discussed buying a stake in the club five years ago before talks with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000068482,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-19423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-homenews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000068482,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton19423.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton19423.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton19423.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton19423.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton19423.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton19423.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000068482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19423"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=19423"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=19423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}