Saudi PIF could sell shares to fund Newcastle United project - Report

The PIF are looking for investors to come into Newcastle United to help them fund their ambitious project.

Newcastle fans are still waiting for news on what's happening with St James' Park, as well as awaiting the final sign-off for the new £200 million training facility that's set to be built near Newcastle Airport.

Drawings of what a new purpose-built stadium would look like have recently circulated in the media, but it still feels like we're no further forward when it comes to knowing whether said stadium will be built, or if the club will opt to upgrade St James' Park.

Whichever route the club decides to go, and it has felt for a while that a new stadium will be the way, it's not going to be an inexpensive operation.

As part of the club's ambitions to be challenging for titles by 2030, a complete overhaul of the club's facilities has been part of the plans, too.

Newcastle are looking for investment

Now, a report from Reuters has revealed that PIF could be willing to sell off part of its stake in the club to investors keen on helping it fund the new stadium.

Building a new stadium is likely to breach the £1bn mark for the club, while a renovation of St James' Park would still be hundreds of millions, so it makes sense that the PIF would be looking for investment.

Mark Douglas at the iPaper has also backed this up, sharing on X that PIF are fully committed to the Newcastle project and exploring their options after receiving interest from potential investors.

Of course, the PIF aren't short of a few quid and could pump in the money themselves without even missing it, but that's not what an investment fund is about; it's about investment and growing their wealth rather than spending it.

Would the Reuben Brothers give up part of their stake?

The report doesn't mention how much the PIF is looking for or how much of their 85% majority holdings they'd be willing to part with to bring new investors on board, but we suspect they'll still want to maintain the lion's share of control.

Amanda Staveley's PCP Capital Partners held a 10% stake in the club initially, but when they were pushed out, the PIF and the Reuben Brothers split her holdings between them. Whether the Reubens would give up that 5% again to create the 80/10/10 split that made up the club previously, we're not sure.

Whatever happens, it's highly unlikely to affect the day-to-day running of the club and will just be about getting some movement on the stadium project. We hope.