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Joe Lewis and Daniel Levy, the major shareholders in Tottenham Hotspur's parent company, Enic, are likely to be forced to commit more than £100m of their own cash in order to build the club's new stadium. That sum will fuel speculation that once full planning permission is achieved, the pair will instead cash in and sell the club.

A recent rights issue, which saw 30 million new shares placed on 21 August, raised £15m in cash for the club, a sum that will offset planning-application costs on Spurs' new 60,000-seat facility without impacting on transfer budgets. Enic underwrote the issue, with less than 7.5% of the new shares bought by third parties.

That meant Lewis and Levy had to pump in £13.9m of their own money, but it was by no means a bad deal for them. The rights issue was heavily discounted: shares were offered at 50p each, down from the market price of more than 80p. Now Enic's holding in Spurs has increased by more than 2% to almost three-quarters of the shares in issue.

Although a cost assessment of the stadium has yet to be conducted, it is expected to come in at more than £250m. Enic envisages a cash-raising exercise that will offer debentures to fans in return for season-ticket rights while generating funds from debt markets, all underpinned with a fresh share issue.

But having tested the market's appetite last month, Lewis and Levy know that would personally cost them huge sums. Far more profitable would be to sell their shares on the inevitable surge in price that will come when planning permission for the ground is achieved. If that happens, the 27.8m shares they picked up last month at 50p a pop would look fantastic value.

(Source: Guardian.co.uk)