ENIC Group (formerly English National Investment Company) is a British investment company. ENIC is owned by Joseph "Joe" Lewis (through

Tavistock Group Tavistock Group is a Bahamas-based private investment organization founded by Joseph "Joe" Lewis in 1975. Lewis is the primary investor in the company. The company is headquartered in the offshore financial center of The Commonwealth of The Ba ...

). ENIC is

Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to ...

-registered subsidiary, ENIC International Limited, currently holds 85.55% of the total issued share capital of English

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

club,

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

. Club chairman Daniel Levy and his family own 29.4% of the share capital of ENIC International Limited, while Lewis owns 70.6%.

History

Previously a private investment trust, English National Investment Company was floated on the

London stock exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...

in 1997 as ENIC plc and became a

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...

for sports, media and leisure businesses. During the football investment boom of the mid to late 1990s it began to acquire shares in football clubs around

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and bought stakes in Tottenham Hotspur (29.9%),

Rangers F.C. Rangers Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the Govan district of Glasgow which plays in the Scottish Premiership. Although not its official name, it is often referred to as Glasgow Rangers outside Scotland. The fou ...

(25.1%),

SK Slavia Prague Sportovní klub Slavia Praha – fotbal (Sports Club Slavia Prague – Football, ), commonly known as Slavia Praha or Slavia Prague, is a Czech professional football club in Prague. Founded in 1892, they are the second most successful club in th ...

(96.7%),

AEK Athens F.C. AEK FC ( el, ΠΑΕ A.E.K. ; Αθλητική Ένωσις Κωνσταντινουπόλεως; ''Athlitikí Énosis Konstantinoupόleos'', meaning ''Athletic Union of Constantinople'') is a Greek professional football club based in Nea Filade ...

(47%),

Vicenza Calcio L.R. Vicenza, commonly referred to as Vicenza, is an Football in Italy, Italian football club based in Vicenza, Veneto. Founded in 1902 as Associazione del Calcio in Vicenza, they became Lanerossi Vicenza in 1953, then Vicenza Calcio from 1990 ...

(99.9%) and

FC Basel Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel, FCB, or just Basel, is a Swiss football club based in Basel, in the Canton of Basel-Stadt. Formed in 1893, the club has been Swiss national champions 20 times, Swiss Cup winners 13 times, and ...

(50%). As well as football clubs, ENIC also invested in other businesses, such as software company

Autonomy In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy, from , ''autonomos'', from αὐτο- ''auto-'' "self" and νόμος ''nomos'', "law", hence when combined understood to mean "one who gives oneself one's ...

, retailer

Warner Bros. Studio Stores The Warner Bros. Studio Store was a chain of retail stores selling Looney Tunes, DC Comics, and other merchandise based on Warner Bros. films, similar in style to The Disney Store. They first opened in 1991. In 1996, Warner Bros. owner Time Warne ...

, gambling website ukbetting.com and entertainment complex

Church Street Station Church Street Station, also called the Old Orlando Railroad Depot, is a historic train station and commercial development in Orlando, Florida. The historic depot and surrounding buildings house a retail and entertainment center. The complex also ...

. In 2001 ENIC bought a controlling stake in

Tottenham Hotspur F.C. Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...

from

Alan Sugar Alan Michael Sugar, Baron Sugar (born 24 March 1947) is a British business magnate, media personality, author, politician and political adviser. In 1968, he started what would later become his largest business venture, consumer electronics com ...

and Levy became

chairman The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...

of the club. Later in 2001, ENIC's listing was transferred from the main stock exchange to the AIM index. In 2003 Joe Lewis and Daniel Levy, who controlled 52% of ENIC shares, formed Kondar Ltd to buy out the remaining shareholders. A cash offer of £40m was made to take the company back into private ownership. Following the buyout, Lewis and Levy controlled 70.6% and 29.4% respectively of shares in ENIC, which was delisted from AIM and renamed ENIC Group. In May 2006 ENIC transferred 61% stake in SK Slavia Prague to Czech brokerage firm Key Investments.Court decision, Jiří Švihla (Insolvency practitioner of Key Investments) versus Tomáš Rosen and Petr Doležal (former clients of Key Investments), 15. August 2004, the insolvency administrator lost the case and decided not to appeal In January 2008 Key Investment breached the contract with ENIC and increased the equity of SK Slavia Prague. Following its purchase of Sugar's remaining shares in Tottenham Hotspur in 2007, ENIC continued to build up its stake, taking its shareholding to 85%. To fund this investment it disposed of its stakes in other football clubs as well as many of its media and entertainment businesses. On the 24 May 2022, Tottenham Hotspur announced a capital increase of up to £150 million from ENIC via the issue of shares. The announcement claimed "the equity injection provides the Premier League club with greater financial flexibility and the ability to further invest on and off the pitch."

References

{{reflist

External links

Tavistock sports portfolio
Investment companies of the United Kingdom Hotel and leisure companies of the United Kingdom Tottenham Hotspur F.C. Tavistock Group

History

See also

References

External links