Newcastle United ownership 'change' revealed in Companies House update

Amanda Staveley’s stake in Newcastle United has been reduced for a second time in a matter of months.

In October 2021, the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia acquired an 80% stake in club as NCUK Investment Limited while Jamie Reuben's RB Sports & Media and Staveley's Cantervale Holdings gained 20% as JV1 Limited.

The shares between RB Sports & Media and Cantervale Holdings were initially equal at a 10%, however that has since been altered.

In January it was revealed Staveley’s stake had reduced to 6% with Reuben’s increasing to 14%. But the split is now 5.7%/ 14.3%, as confirmed in JV1 Companies House update over the weekend.

In a graph created by Greg Cordell (@gregorypcordell), RB Sports & Media have acquired another 7,400,000 shares, increasing their total to 87,337,795 compared to Cantervale’s 34,457,795. Of the 121, 580,002 shares JVI own in Newcastle, that equates to a split of 71.7%/ 28.3%.

A thread by Cordell - endorsed by football finance expert Kieran Maguire - read: “As expected, each filing by JV1 Ltd that waived pre-emption rights was housekeeping for prior share issuances (10 Feb 2023; 22 Aug 2023; 04 Apr 2024). This also confirms that all 7.4m shares issued on 04 Apr 2024 were allotted to RB Sports & Media.

“The impact on ownership is minor overall, but with this latest investment RB Sports & Media's stake in JV1 Ltd increased from 69.9% to 71.7% and Cantervale Holdings' stake decreased from 30.1% to 28.3%.

“Given that JV1 Limited indirectly owns 20% of NUFC, Reuben's beneficial ownership increased from 14.0% to 14.3% and Staveley's beneficial ownership decreased from 6.0% to 5.7%.”

Despite Staveley's diluted share, the Ripon-born financer remains a key figure at St James' Park. Her and husband Mehrdad Ghodoussi remain in charge of the day-to-day running of the football club.