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The cost of purchasing West Ham United FC is likely to be upwards of £600million for the next wealthy individual or corporation who wish to buy out the current owners.

Since leaving Upton Park the current owners' valuation of the club has risen steeply, to the point where more than half-a-billion pounds would be required to wrestle control from the incumbent board.




All of which means David Sullivan and his fellow shareholders could be in for an extraordinary windfall worth hundreds of millions of pounds if and when they decide to move on.

And that would represent a colossal return on what, KUMB can reveal, was a combined investment of little more than £20million for Sullivan and his late business partner David Gold 15 years ago this month.

Following extensive research, KUMB's aaronhammer illustrates below how David Sullivan's investment into the club amounts to little more than £15million - while the Gold family, who stand to benefit from David Gold's shareholding are already in profit - without having to sell a single share.

Going back to 2010, when Sullivan and Gold took control of West Ham United by purchasing a majority share of the club from Icelandic Bank Straumur, this is the timeline of events that led to the above conclusions.


2010

In January, Sullivan and Gold initially purchased 1,000 shares - 25% of the total shares each - in West Ham United. The 2010 accounts for Sullivan's company Conegate Developments Limited inform us that it works out at £21,648 per share. Therefore this was a purchase price of £21.65million (£10.82million each) - which ties in with this Paul Peschisolido's earlier comments as published here on KUMB in 2011.

Later, Sullivan and Gold acquired another 112 shares each to take their combined ownership to 61.2%. Conegate's accounts let us know these shares were valued at £20,100 per share - so another £2.25million each (with the running total now £13.08million each). Daniel Harris, John Harris, and Terence Brown also acquired 76 shares (3.8%) between them for an unknown amount.


2013

David Sullivan buys 500 more shares (25%) giving G&S 86.2% ownership of the club. Sullivan also sells 90 shares (4.5%) from his company Roldvale to the Gold Group International Limited - this means Sullivan now has 51.1% ownership (1,022 shares) whilst Gold has 35.1% (702 shares).

The 2014 accounts for GGI show the amount per share to be £32,400. This means Gold has now paid £15.99m for his shares. We can therefore estimate the cost of the other 500 shares from Sullivan to be in the region of £16.2million, which means with the £2.92million received from Gold, that Sullivan would now be up to £26.36million for his shares.


2017

Tripp Smith (WHU LLC) buys the remaining 200 shares that were left over from the Icelandics (10.0%). It's not confirmed anywhere how much these cost, though.




2020

A rights issue for £30million is introduced, creating 750 new shares - therefore at a cost of £40,000 per share. Sullivan purchased 395, which included 95 not taken up by John Harris, which increased his shareholding to 50.5% and a total outlay of £42.16million for his 1,417 shares.

Gold purchased 263 new shares, keeping him at 35.1% and a total spend of £26.51million for his 965 shares. Smith purchased 75, keeping him at 10.0% with 275 shares. Daniel Harris and Terence Brown increased their shares by 12 and five to 44 and 18 respectively. John Harris remained at 31. Combined, these made up the remaining 3.4%.


2021

Initially Daniel Kretinsky (1890s holdings a.s) pays £125million for 688 new shares as detailed in the 2022 accounts. This gives him a 20.0% stake of the club. It waters Sullivan's stake down to 41.2%, Gold's to 28.1%, Smith's to 8.0% and the others to 2.7%. Kretinsky then buys 240 existing shares for a cost of £43.75million (£182,292 per share) to take his control to 26.99%, as detailed in the 2022 accounts.

Gold sold 103 shares for £18.78million (leaving him with 862 shares, 25.07%). Sullivan sold 84 shares for £15.31million (leaving him with 1,333, 38.77%). Daniel Harris (who also took on John Harris's shares) sold 44 for £8.02million (leaving him with 31, 0.90%). Terence Brown sold nine for £1.64million (leaving him with nine and 0.26%).

So when we tot it all up, Sullivan has paid a net £26.85million, Gold a net £7.74million - and Kretinsky £168.75million.




We know from the annual accounts that Sullivan and Gold each took out just under £12million in interest on the (now repaid) loans too, so that means Sullivan's net price for his involvement at West Ham might well be around £15million, whilst the Golds are already in profit by about £5million even before any sales of the shares they hold.

The £125million Kretinsky paid back in 2021 would also value the club around £627million. At that value - and we know they want more - if Sullivan sold all his shares tomorrow he’d make about £230million profit, whilst the Golds would stand to make over £160million.

Let that sink in, while the club's board remain unwavering and unsympathetic regarding opposition to their vastly unpopular policy of removing concessions and charging under 18s and over 66s full price.

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