Villa Takeover Imminent?

Well, the talk of the supposed takeover of Aston Villa has certainly gone quiet recently. The announcement was made to the City before Aston Villa’s Annual General meeting back in October (14th) where Solihull born Villa fan Michael Neville was said to have made an enquiry on behalf of a consortium led by the Comer Homes owners, brothers Luke and Brian Comer.

Aston Villa Plc, said in the statement at the time, that its board has not met with any other members of the consortium group, nor received any confirmation of the availability of sufficient funding to support any potential offer. So the board can treat the approach as speculative at this stage.

Reports suggested both Doug Ellis and the second largest shareholder Jack Petchey had agreed to sell their combined 58% stake in Aston Villa for around £5.60 per share.

Since then, apart from stories suggesting the Comer bid would result in Villa being ‘asset stripped’ which led to a statement from Michael Neville denying any takeover he had been involved in had ever been done to asset strip a company, all has been quiet.

However, in the last week I’ve been told twice that there is a takeover about to happen and unless Doug changes his mind and goes against advice, it is a ‘done deal’. I was also contacted yesterday and told there are ‘Rampant rumours in Ireland that its done and dusted as of last Friday…and I mean RAMPANT.’

I can’t vouch for any of this, but surely – if the interest was going to be withdrawn – it would have been announced to the City by now and the club would have been able to go back to business as usual? At the moment Aston Villa are in virtual limbo, so lets hope, one way or the other, this proposal is brought to a conclusion. Lets double hope that any deal done is in the best interest of Aston Villa, not just the interests of the major shareholders, and that the platform that is already in place is built upon.