Drumaville paid £20m to bag Cats, says report

THE Irish-based Drumaville Consortium behind Sunderland has paid just over £20m (€21.5m) for its investment in the Premier League club, according to 2007 figures available from Jersey’s Financial Services Commission (FSC).

The Dublin-based Patrick Kelly, of property developers Kelland Homes, was the largest investor at the beginning of this year, with 2,271 shares bought for £2,058.53 (€2,220.05) each — a total of £4.6m (€4.3m). The pub group owners Louis Fitzgerald and Charlie Chawke were the next largest, each having paid £3m (€3.23m).

John Hays, a travel company owner based in Sunderland, and his wife Irene (the chief executive of South Tyneside Council) invested £1.6m (€1.7m) combined, as did the builders Jack Tierney and Patsy Byrne.

The developer and housebuilder Sean Mulryan bought almost £1.5m (€1.6m) of shares; Patrick Beirne, managing director of plastics company Mergon International, invested £1m (€1.07m), and the housing developer James McEvoy £740,000 (€797,000).

A further £1.5m (€1.6m) was held for unnamed beneficiaries by a Jersey-based trust company.

The figures are from the latest filing at Jersey’s FSC from January 1 last.

However with Drumaville members’ wealth mostly in property, they have been unable to continue spending on the club this season, facilitating the fresh injection of cash from US equity investor Ellis Short. Chairman Niall Quinn, another investor, met with Short at the Ryder Cup this year, and sold his vision for Sunderland sufficiently well for Short to buy in, taking just under 30% ownership of the club. He is understood to have invested with cash, not loans, in a Drumaville share issue which reduced the proportionate holdings of the original investors. Short is also believed to have options to put further significant money into the club, which could increase his to a controlling stake.

The club continues to examine the credentials of a plethora of candidates for manager to replace Roy Keane. Reports that Short is expressing a preference are thought to be false; Quinn is stressing that he and the club’s full-time directors are charged with the decision: “The ownership is happy that the executive board will select the next full-time manager,” he said. “We accept that responsibility and will act as professionally as possible to secure the right man,” he told The Guardian.