The three key stages Amr Zedan must go through if he is to buy Preston North End
Takeover talk has been doing the rounds since January at PNE
US-born Saudi businessman Amr Zedan has been strongly linked with buying Preston North End from the Hemmings family.
There has been no official update since late January, when PNE chairman Ian Penrose confirmed discussions with Zedan - who then attended North End’s 1-1 draw with Queens Park Rangers in early April. If the 51-year-old is to be successful in purchasing PNE, there are three key stages to go through.
Once informed of a proposed change, the English Football League will begin making necessary checks to deem whether Zedan meets the requirements to ‘exercise control’ over a club. There is then the Owners’ and Directors Test to pass, Future Financial Information to submit and Source and Sufficiency of Funding to prove.
With the O&D test, prospective owners must ‘evidence they are not subject to any disqualifying events’ i.e. criminal convictions, financial failure, bans, professional dishonesty and more. A self-declaration must be completed and countersigned by the club. The EFL will then carry out background checks to ‘verify the accuracy’ of the declaration.
Up to date FFI must be submitted to prove how the club will operate under new ownership. This includes projected profit and loss accounts, cash flow data, balance sheets and relevant explanatory notes. It must cover the following season and will then be reviewed by an independent Club Financial Reporting Unit.
All of this is underpinned by Source and Sufficiency of Funding: how much money there is, and where it has come from. The source is most commonly demonstrated via three years of a companies’ audited annual accounts, investment portfolios provided directly by management companies, or ‘evidence of a substantial transaction’.
Sufficiency of funding is proving access to enough cash to purchase and run the club, in line with the disclosed business plan. The EFL reserves the right to require further information in order to understand and verify the ultimate source of funds. Once all of the above is completed, the EFL will issue clearance for a change of control.
Their website reads: ‘Ultimately, each acquisition of control will be unique with differing circumstances each time. Some will be more straight-forward while others may take longer due to increased complexity – for example the number of investors, structure, origin of investment and a range of factors may impact the process timeline.’