What is Amanda Staveley's Net Worth?
Amanda Staveley is a British financier and businesswoman who has a net worth of $170 million. Amanda Staveley serves as a director of the firm PCP Capital Partners. Through the firm, she has facilitated numerous major deals by Middle Eastern investors, including the 2021 Saudi takeover of the football club Newcastle United, of which she subsequently became a director. Other notable deals led by Staveley include the £7.3 billion investment in Barclays by the ruling families of Abu Dhabi and Qatar in 2008.
Early Life and Education
Amanda Staveley was born on April 11, 1973 in Ripon, England to Lynne and Robert. Her mother was a champion show jumper, while her father founded the Lightwater Valley Family Adventure Park in North Stainley. As a youth, Staveley went to Queen Margaret's School for Girls. Taking after her mother, she competed in show jumping. Staveley went on to attend the University of Cambridge's St. Catharine's College, but dropped out after the death of her grandfather caused her too much stress.
Career Beginnings
Staveley began her business career in 1996 when she bought the Bottisham restaurant Stocks with an £180,000 loan. Through the restaurant, she was introduced to various members of the horse racing community in nearby Newmarket, particularly those associated with the Godolphin stables, which were owned by the Al Maktoum family of Dubai. Staveley also came to know many people from the tech industry in nearby Cambridge, and in the late 1990s she became a prominent angel investor in dot-com ventures and biotech firms.
In 2000, Staveley closed her restaurant Stocks and opened the conference center Q.ton in the Cambridge Science Park. She subsequently sold a 49% share in Q.ton to the telecom company EuroTelecom. However, EuroTelecom soon went out of business amid the collapse of the dot-com bubble. At the time, Q.ton had reportedly owed EuroTelecom £835,000, and Staveley had reportedly agreed to buy back the company's stake. She eventually did, although she was unable to bring Q.ton back to success.
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PCP Capital Partners and Major Deals
Following the failure of Q.ton, Staveley moved to Dubai and began forming connections that extended throughout the Middle East. In 2008, she founded the firm PCP Capital Partners with her legal partner Craig Eadie. Although based in London, the firm operates through offshore private equity affiliates that serve as vehicles for Middle Eastern investors. Toward the end of 2008, Staveley attracted attention for facilitating Sheikh Mansour's £210 million acquisition of the football club Manchester City through the Abu Dhabi United Group. Simultaneously, she was involved in Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum's negotiations to purchase a 49% stake in the football club Liverpool, although this deal fell through. Staveley garnered particular attention a little later in 2008 when she helped the ruling families of Abu Dhabi and Qatar invest £7.3 billion in Barclays. For her role in the transaction, she earned £30 million.
In late 2017, Staveley put in a bid to purchase the football club Newcastle United; it ultimately failed. She tried again in 2020 with the help of the Saudi Arabian government's sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, but this too failed. Finally, in late 2021, Staveley successfully purchased Newcastle United with the Reuben Brothers and the Public Investment Fund for £300 million. She became the club's director alongside Jamie Reuben and Yasir bin Othman Al-Rumayyan. Many criticized the takeover, condemning it as "sportswashing." Staveley defended the acquisition in part by stating that the Public Investment Fund, which led the takeover, is a separate entity from the Saudi Arabian government.
Staveley has been involved in numerous other deals with Middle Eastern investors. In 2008, she fronted a bid by the Qatar Investment Authority to purchase the facilities management company Trillium, although the bid failed. Staveley was also involved in a failed attempt to help finance the $13.5 billion sale of Barclays Global Investors to the firm BlackRock. She had more success in 2010 when she advised the Qatari property investment company Barwa in its acquisition of the Park House site in London. A couple of years later, Staveley helped one of her Middle Eastern private equity groups purchase the Arundel Great Court site on the north bank of the Thames in London.
Personal Life
In the early 2000s, Staveley dated Prince Andrew, Duke of York in a relationship that became tabloid fodder. Later, in 2011, she married British-Iranian financier Mehrdad Ghodoussi.
