ENIC Group (formerly English National Investment Company) is a British investment company. ENIC is owned by the family trust of Joe Lewis. ENIC's

Bahamas The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an archipelagic and island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97 per cent of the archipelago's land area and 88 per cent of its population. ...

-registered subsidiary, ENIC International Limited, currently holds 86.58% of the total issued share capital of English

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

club

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...

. Club chairman Daniel Levy and his family own 29.88% of the share capital of ENIC International Limited, while a

discretionary trust In the trust law of England, Australia, Canada, and other common law jurisdictions, a discretionary trust is a trust where the beneficiaries and their entitlements to the trust fund are not fixed, but are determined by the criteria set out in ...

of Lewis's family owns 70.12%.

History

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

London stock exchange The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...

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 Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share ...

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 continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

and bought stakes in Tottenham Hotspur (29.9%), Rangers F.C. (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 association football, football football team, club in Prague. Founded in 1892, they are ...

(96.7%), AEK Athens F.C. (47%),

Vicenza Calcio L.R. Vicenza S.p.A. (acronym for ''Lanerossi Vicenza''), better known as Vicenza or Lanerossi, is an Italian football club based in the city of Vicenza. It plays in Serie C, the third division of the Italian football league. Founded on 9 March ...

(99.9%) and

FC Basel Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel, FCB, or just Basel, is a Swiss professional Association football, football club based in Basel, in the Basel-Stadt, Canton of Basel-Stadt. Formed in 1893, the club has been List of Swiss footba ...

(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 is the capacity to make an informed, uncoerced decision. Autonomous organizations or institutions are independent or self-governing. Autonomy can also be ...

, 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. In 2001 ENIC bought a controlling stake in

Tottenham Hotspur F.C. Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...

from

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

and Levy became

chairman The chair, also chairman, chairwoman, or chairperson, 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 gro ...

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 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

External links

Tavistock sports portfolio
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151020002824/http://www.tavistock.com/tavi_types/sports/ , date=2015-10-20 Investment companies of the United Kingdom Hospitality companies of the United Kingdom Tottenham Hotspur F.C. Tavistock Group