If the richest man in Africa venture into any business he always succeed, but will he invest in a club as Arsenal? Respected businessman, Aliko Dangote, has admitted that he is still interested in buying English Premier League team, Arsenal. Dangote, who is Africa’s richest man, is worth $15.7billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and was rebuffed in his attempts to buy a stake in the club in 2010.
“I still hope, one day at the right price, that I’ll buy the team,” Dangote said in an interview on a flight between Addis Ababa and Lagos.“I might buy it, not at a ridiculous price but a price that the owners won’t want to resist. I know my strategy.” If the 58-year-old is successful with a future bid, it would make him the first African owner of a club in England. Billionaires like Roman Abramovich (Russia) and Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan have purchased Chelsea and Manchester City respectively.
Arsenal is currently valued at £988m ($1.49bn) and Stan Kroenke, owner of the National Football League’s St. Louis Rams holds 67% shares in the club. Uzbek billionaire Alisher Usmanov and Farhad Moshiri, own 30%. Dangote, who has interests in sugar, flour, cement, oil etc, however, says he is not planning to make a bid soon. “We have $16 billion-worth of investments in the next few years,” he said. “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”.
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