Saudi PIF ready to sell 25% of their stake in Newcastle - Report

It was recently reported that the PIF would be willing to sell off part of its share in the club to help fund upcoming projects.

Newcastle United's majority owners are keen on securing external funding to help with huge projects looming on the horizon.

The club is already moving ahead with plans to build a new state-of-the-art training facility near Newcastle Airport, and at some point in the future, there will be movement on the current stadium, whether that be a big renovation and expansion or building a new purpose-built stadium on the nearby Leazes Park.

Even this year, the club has just announced that they are undertaking £30 million worth of improvements to the current infrastructure.

When the story first broke, it wasn't made clear just how much of its 85% stake in the club the PIF would be willing to part with, but a report in The Times now suggests it could be as much as 25%.

PIF is ready to decrease its stake in NUFC to 63.75%

The report claims that the club is now valued at £1.5 billion, and the 21.25% stake a new investor would be entitled to by taking 25% of the PIF's 85% stake would be worth around £300 million. That's almost what the consortium paid for the whole club in 2021, so that shows just how much the club has grown in that short time.

A new influx of £300 million would go a long way to funding the two big projects. The training ground is expected to cost around £200 million, and we could be looking at over £1bn for the stadium.

The PIF made it clear that the club would have to fund a large chunk of the stadium project itself, rather than the PIF pumping in all the money itself, and selling shares is the quickest way to raise a substantial amount of equity.

PIF seems keen to get this done

It was originally reported that the PIF were looking to sell off their shares, but later that same day, it was claimed that someone had approached the PIF about buying a stake in Newcastle United.

Whichever way it happened, it now looks as though the PIF is on board with the idea and is willing to lower its stake to 63.75%.

Let's just hope that whoever it is who buys into the club does so with good intentions and brings more than just money to make themselves more money, and actually contributes to the club beyond the initial investment. We're sure the PIF bods are clever enough to get it right.