Everton owners make surprising behind-the-scenes move that raises fresh intrigue

Everton’s owners are continuing efforts to strengthen the club’s financial footing a year into their stewardship at Goodison Park.

The Friedkin Group (TFG), led by Dan Friedkin, completed their takeover of Everton from Farhad Moshiri in December 2024. Since then, a series of behind-the-scenes measures have been put in place aimed at steadying the balance sheet and easing long-standing concerns around profit and sustainability rules.

Over the summer, Everton sold their women’s team to a parent company in a move expected to deliver a substantial paper profit and provide further PSR headroom. It emerged last week that the board has proposed paying a £20 dividend to shareholders following that transaction.

In addition, the club has transferred £650million from its share premium account — the surplus generated when shares are issued above their nominal value — a technical adjustment that allows greater flexibility around capital distribution.

Former Manchester City financial adviser Stefan Borson admitted he was taken aback by the proposal. TFG now owns around 99.7 per cent of Everton, leaving only a small minority shareholding in circulation.

Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, Borson said: “To be honest, it’s just corporate administrative stuff. Reducing the share premium account allows you to distribute dividends or capital to shareholders.

“I’m a bit surprised because I don’t really see that there’s a particular need to distribute let’s say £50m. I don’t actually even think it’s as much as that, but let’s say it was £50m.

“There’s no real purpose to distributing £50m to shareholders when you know that 99.5 per cent of it is going to go to the majority shareholder, who is going to have to put money back into the club to continue to fund its losses imminently.”

The move also follows tensions after the takeover, with some minority investors unhappy about the share price attached to the change of ownership.

Borson explained how those shareholders will be affected. “You’ve got money going out and obviously some of it goes to the minority shareholders, who are some of those fans who held shares historically,” he said.

“They’ll receive I think £20 per share. It won’t be much compensation because some of those shares were bought for £3,000-plus in the not-too-distant past actually.

“They’ve been bad investments, but of course, most people probably just want the share certificate in a frame or given it as a gift, so I don’t really understand why they’re doing the dividend. There’s probably a good explanation to it.

“The messing around with the shared premium account is pretty dull stuff, even for the lawyers and accountants. I wouldn’t spend too long pondering it from a footballing perspective. I don’t think it has any impact whatsoever.”

TFG, however, continue to pour money into the club as they look to stabilise Everton’s finances and lay firmer foundations for the future.