Investment incoming at Swansea City

There has been much speculation over the past week or so as to just why Steve Kaplan is in the UK and exactly what that could mean for Swansea City.

Kaplan has long since been the decision maker behind the ownership group at the club and that never changed despite him standing down as a director (Kaplan still pulls the strings – read more here)

It appeared to be somewhat unexpected when he turned up at Millwall last week to watch the Swans defeat and what followed was some ‘confusion’ as to his whereabouts with many claims he was in Swansea whilst there were other suggestions that he had travelled to the Middle East.    Speculation reigns at the best of times and even more so when the “main player” in the ownership group makes unexpected trips to be involved with the club.   After all he is hardly a regular in SA1 since relegation from the Premier League.

We have now though been told by several sources that Kaplan’s visit was to tie up the new investment into the club.    It has been stated that it is not a sale of the club but merely new money coming in very similar to when Jake Silverstein first became a part player in the ownership when he made his loan to the club some while back.

The source of the money is not yet known but it has been suggested that the funding is secured, the deal all but signed and further details of what this investment looks like should become clear relatively soon.   What relatively soon actually means remains to be seen but Kaplan wasn’t here on a holiday, it appears that was much more to close off the deal to add additional finances to the club.

Given the disaster that was the January window and the need for the club to prop up their finances seemingly now on an annual basis somehow then further investment will undoubtedly be welcomed although the immediate impact of new shareholding dilutes the overall shareholding of the Supporters Trust albeit it their 5% of the voting rights are protected under the terms of their confidential legal settlement.

The other question currently unanswered is the amount of the investment.   We are told that it is not unsubstantial but not “Newcastle United” proportion which, in fairness, leaves a pretty wide range of options still available…

Suggestions have been that the amount is certainly in the eight figure bracket which would be in line with other recent investments (via loans) to the club but the purpose of the investment and how it weaves into the overall finances of the club over the next few months will remain to be seen particularly with major calls for investment on the playing side of a team that has won just four of their last twenty-four games.

There is, of course, more detail on this then we are able to provide at this time (not from a confidentiality point of view but from a “we don’t know” view) and it will be interesting to see how this pans out over time but it does appear that progress has been made and formal news hopefully won’t be too far behind that.