The organisation that sparked Newcastle United’s 2021 takeover has been pushed into liquidation after a dispute between Amanda Staveley and Greek shipping magnate Victor Restis.
Staveley’s Apollo Belvedere Services was liquidated by a London judge earlier this month. It was the company formerly known as PCP Capital Partners – who were on the books of the original consortium at Newcastle when the Saudi-backed takeover was pushed through and they helped broker the deal to end Mike Ashley’s 14-year tenure on Tyneside.
Restis claimed that he was owed £10m from a loan made to Staveley’s ventures in 2008. The Financial Times report: “Staveley was required to pay the tycoon about £3.5m after she lost a High Court bid in March to block a statutory demand — a formal ultimatum for payment of a debt — that Restis served on the British financier last year.
“That sum has now been paid, according to both sides. Restis has also sought interest payments on the loan, and last week rejected a £1.6mn settlement offer from Apollo as being far smaller than the contractual amount due, he said. Restis instead opted to continue pursuing a winding-up petition against the entity. Apollo disputed that the amount due was larger than £1.6mn.
“Restis told the Financial Times that he would now seek the appointment of specialist insolvency practitioners as liquidators of the company to conduct an investigation into its affairs, the circumstances of its liquidation, and Staveley’s conduct as designated member.
“The entity has no assets and has shown no signs of active trading for a number of years. The liquidation comes after London’s High Court in March threw out Staveley’s attempt to block the statutory demand served on her by Restis.”
Staveley left Newcastle in July after three years on the board after a shake up at St James’ Park. She said then: “I am devastated. It’s such a wonderful club, so it feels very bittersweet. It has become part of my DNA, something you love so much and don’t want to let go. It’s very painful.”
But it has not been an easy time for the powers that be at Newcastle with head coach Eddie Howe and sporting director Paul Mitchell having teething problems since the former Monaco man came on board. Mitchell claimed the scouting network was “not fit for purpose” before Howe reasoned that he was proud of the signings he’d help make.
Speaking at the weekend, Alan Shearer on Premier League match day live said: “It is a different Newcastle now to when Eddie came in. The communications coming out of Newcastle were great in terms of Amanda and Mehrdad.
“That’s what they were great at. That’s not the case at Newcastle now and this (the Mitchell-Howe spat) would not have happened six months or a year ago because Eddie was really tight with Amanda and Mehrdad and they were his allies the way they worked and the way Amanda would give everybody the information.
“That is not the case now. It is very different now with Eddie working with Paul Mitchell and Darren Eales.”
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