Kroenke Supports Arsenal ‘lock-down’ Agreement

US billionaire Stan Kroenke, who owns a 12.2% stake in Premiership club Arsenal, has quashed talk of a potential takeover by openly supporting the board’s decision not to sell their shares in the immediate future.

Arsenal’s board instigated a ‘lock-down’ agreement last week in order to resist any takeover attempts after speculation mounted that either Kroenke or Russian investor Alisher Usmanov’s Red and White Holdings company were aggressively targeting a buyout.

The lock-down agreement dictates that directors can only sell their shares to “permitted persons” before April 2009 and must give fellow board members first option until October 2012.

Commented Kroenke: ‘I certainly don’t have any problem with the lock-down. This is a long-term, strategic investment for us. These things take a lot of time and effort to develop.

‘We showed them we are long-term investors. We do things for very specific reasons. We think they’re good reasons.’