West Ham have issued a response to mounting speculation about a US bid for the club that is now being linked to a Chelsea co-owner.
It was revealed last week that a mystery US investor was in talks to buy the Gold family’s 25 per cent stake in West Ham.
The man greasing the wheels for the US West Ham bid was unmasked this week as the club’s existing stake-holder Albert Tripp Smith.
But there was a big Chelsea twist to the situation yesterday when a top Hammers source claimed Blues part-owner Mark Walter is involved.
Chelsea twist to West Ham US bid
Guggenheim Partners CEO Walter co-owns Chelsea in another US consortium.
It is believed he personally owns just under 13 per cent of Chelsea with Todd Boehly – a former president of Guggenheim Partners.
The global investment firm said to have over £260 billion in assets and is well known to American investment executive, Tripp Smith – who already owns eight per cent of West Ham – as the co-founder of GSO Capital Partners, the credit investment platform of The Blackstone Group.
Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images
Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images
Ironically back in 2022, Boehly was being linked with a West Ham takeover before eventually leading the purchase of Chelsea.
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It has been claimed the US bid could be part of a coup at West Ham by Tripp Smith, which would target the Gold family’s 25 per cent share to add to his eight per cent – but then also purchase Daniel Kretinsky’s 27 per cent stake too.
That, it was claimed, could then give the Tripp Smith and Guggenheim US consortium a controlling 60.1% share of West Ham to outvote the remaining shareholders – chiefly David Sullivan.
West Ham respond to Chelsea co-owner bid claim
It was also claimed Kretinsky, who recent reports stated is considering selling his Hammers stake, could ‘probably be persuaded to sell’ if someone doubles the £168.75m he invested in 2021.
Now West Ham have responded to the Chelsea co-owner bid claim as the takeover starts to get real.
It has been stressed previously that the US bid is currently at the initial stage, sitting with lawyers.
It has struck many West Ham fans as odd that there appears to have been little interest in the Gold family’s stake since Vanessa Gold announced it was for sale in October 2023.
But it has now become clear that the estate has been held up in probate, which it has now exited, seeing the acceleration of the US bid.
Chelsea part owner Mark Walter and the US flag. Inset, West Ham co-owners David Sullivan and Daniel Kretinsky
Credit: Craig Mercer/MB Media/Justin Edmonds/James Chance/JOEL SAGET/AFP via Getty Images
West Ham takeover prospects start to get real
A large number of Chelsea fans are not happy with the way their club is being run.
There have even been protests from some Blues supporters against the ownership – which has become fractured over the last year.
So it would be no great surprise if Walter was to sell up and exit the club as part of the West Ham bid.
Hammers News asked the top spokesman for West Ham’s owners for a comment on the US bid situation.
And while scant detail was given, the intended bid has been confirmed for the first time, even if it is in its infancy.
It was put to the club whether they welcomed the US bid initiated by Smith for the Gold shares.
And the response was very encouraging towards the investment.
“It is all talk at the moment,” the top spokesman for West Ham’s board exclusively told Hammers News.
“But it seems OK.”
Walter is the primary owner and chairman of Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers and is said to have a personal net worth of around £4.5bn.