Amanda Staveley
Encyclopedia
Amanda Staveley is a British businesswoman notable chiefly for her connections with Middle Eastern investors. In 2008 Staveley played a prominent role in the investment of £7.3 billion in Barclays by the ruling families of Abu Dhabi
and Qatar
, and by the Qatari sovereign wealth fund
. Staveley’s firm, PCP Capital Partners, acted for Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan
of the Abu Dhabi royal family, who invested £3.5 billion to control 16 per cent of the bank. The deal was reported to have earned PCP Capital Partners a commission of £110 million, which, after paying advisers, represented a profit of £40 million. Staveley was also involved in Sheik Mansour's high profile purchase of Manchester City Football Club in September 2008.
Staveley, who once described herself as "a dealmaker at heart", said in 2008: "I'm just grateful to have been given the opportunities I've had so far. It's not about money — it wouldn't matter if I was making £8m or £200m. I just want to go to bed at night and say I've done a good job."
theme park, where Staveley waitressed as a child; her mother, Lynne, was an occasional model and champion showjumper. Staveley spent much of her childhood with her maternal grandparents. Her grandfather, Ralph Raper, made a fortune running a chain of betting shops, including "the biggest illegal betting shop in the North" in a Doncaster cellar where takings sometimes reached £10,000 a day. They later owned Doncaster dog track and profited further from investment in land and stocks. "He taught me everything", Staveley said. "I am always asking myself what he would do in a certain situation."
Staveley was educated at Queen Margaret's School, York
. She admitted to having lots of drive as a child and competed in showjumping and athletics. She ran 12.6 seconds for the hundred metres at the age of 14, before a snapped Achilles tendon ended her involvement in the sport. At 16 Staveley left school and enrolled at a crammer
, taking her A-levels in a single year and winning a place to read modern languages at St Catharine's College, Cambridge
. As a student she worked as a model to supplement her income. Staveley abandoned her degree after ending up in hospital suffering from stress after the death of her grandfather.
between Cambridge
and Newmarket. She would get up at about 4 am to begin preparing food and then waitressed in the evening having spent the afternoon writing business plans and studying for her city exams. "I lived and breathed business and banking," she later said. "I thought one day they would come in useful." Through the restaurant Staveley came to know members of Newmarket's racing community, in particular those associated with the Godolphin Racing stables owned by the Al Maktoum family
of Dubai, as well as people from Cambridge's high-tech businesses. Through the late 1990s she started dealing in shares and became an active angel investor
, especially in dot.com enterprises and biotech firms such as Futura Medical.
"If I'm shown a good idea," she said, "I can't help but look."
Staveley closed Stocks and in 2000 opened Q.ton, a £10 million conference centre and facility developed in a joint venture with Trinity College, Cambridge
on Cambridge Science Park
. The investors in Q.ton were believed to include King Abdullah of Jordan
, who visited the development in November 2001. That visit that was followed by a trip to Jordan
by Staveley as King Abdullah's guest. In 2000 she was named Businesswoman of the Year.
to investigate the executive members of the EuroTelecom board.
Staveley bought EuroTelecom's stake in Q.ton from the firm's administrator PricewaterhouseCooper
, a deal that led to a discontinued petition of bankruptcy against her when payment was delayed. She began raising £35 million from private investors to roll the Q.ton concept out throughout the UK and Europe. However, the company failed. Staveley agreed an Individual Voluntary Arrangement
and in 2008 was paying back her creditors, including Barclays. "I was a cocky, arrogant bugger. Now I never want to go through something like that ever again," she said in 2008.
but extending across the Middle East. “She has absorbed their culture and respects them. That has put her in an extremely strong position,” one financial adviser commented. Mark Horrocks, a hedge fund manager, suggested that the "reasonably good standing" of the Staveley family allowed her to be accepted in the region. Staveley herself spoke of the excitement of working in the Middle East, adding, “There is something about the growth of this young economy that I saw in myself.”
In 2008 the Financial Times
described her firm, PCP Capital Partners, as really amounting to Staveley and her legal partner, Craig Eadie, and explained that, although based in Mayfair
, London, the company acts "via offshore private equity affiliates" as a vehicle for the investment of Middle Eastern money, with Staveley acting as an adviser on those deals. One associate was quoted at this time as saying, "Amanda is known and trusted by her contacts in the Gulf like almost no other non-Arab. She has spent a decade building that relationship. She tells things as they are and has a clarity of purpose that they appreciate."
, reputedly the highest paid banker in the City
, was responsible for delivering Quatari involvement in the deal, while Staveley advised Sheikh Mansour on his £3.5 billion investment, for which he gained control of 16 per cent of the bank. At the time Staveley said: "We would happily have gone further. We could have taken up to 25 per cent." Staveley, who said that she had been watching Barclays for some time, had begun talking to Sheikh Mansour about investment opportunities in British banking six months previously.
in September of the same year through the Abu Dhabi United Group
, a transaction reportedly worth £10 million in commission to PCP Capital Partners. At the same time Staveley was involved in extended negotiations by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum
's Dubai International Capital
to buy a 49 per cent stake in Liverpool Football Club, although the deal, which would have given Staveley a place on the club's board, eventually foundered.
to buy the Trillium facilities management business from the Land Securities property group, an offer reportedly totaling £1.1 billion. The bid in the end came to nothing in the autumn of that year and Trillium was sold to Telereal
for £750 million in January 2009.
Later that year Staveley was involved in an attempt to help finance the $13.5 billion sale of Barclays Global Investors to the US firm BlackRock
, offering $2.8 billion of funding in return for a shareholding of 10 per cent, an amount that reportedly included a commitment of Staveley's own money. In June 2009, with details being finalised, Blackrock pulled out of the deal. Press reports at the time suggested that BlackRock had sought further clarification of the identity of the investors behind the special purpose vehicle created by PCP Capital Partners to handle the offer, although alternative reports claimed that they had always been aware of the conditions of the deal. In the end BlackRock funded its purchase of BGI from other sources.
In 2010 Staveley was reported to have advised the Qatari property investment company Barwa in their purchase of the Park House site on Oxford Street
from Land Securities for £250 million, a deal that was said to have earned PCP Capital Partners in the region of £5 million to £7.5 million in fees.
headlines after dating The Duke of York
in 2003. In 2011 she married Iran
ian-born Mehrdad Ghodoussi.
Staveley lives in Dubai and has a house in London's Park Lane
.
Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi , literally Father of Gazelle, is the capital and the second largest city of the United Arab Emirates in terms of population and the largest of the seven member emirates of the United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi lies on a T-shaped island jutting into the Persian Gulf from the central western...
and Qatar
Qatar
Qatar , also known as the State of Qatar or locally Dawlat Qaṭar, is a sovereign Arab state, located in the Middle East, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeasterly coast of the much larger Arabian Peninsula. Its sole land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its...
, and by the Qatari sovereign wealth fund
Sovereign wealth fund
A sovereign wealth fund is a state-owned investment fund composed of financial assets such as stocks, bonds, property, precious metals or other financial instruments. Sovereign wealth funds invest globally. Some of them have grabbed attention making bad investments in several Wall Street financial...
. Staveley’s firm, PCP Capital Partners, acted for Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan
Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan
HH Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan is a United Arab Emirati politician and member of ruling family of Abu Dhabi . He is the half brother of the current President of UAE, Emir of Abu Dhabi, Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan...
of the Abu Dhabi royal family, who invested £3.5 billion to control 16 per cent of the bank. The deal was reported to have earned PCP Capital Partners a commission of £110 million, which, after paying advisers, represented a profit of £40 million. Staveley was also involved in Sheik Mansour's high profile purchase of Manchester City Football Club in September 2008.
Staveley, who once described herself as "a dealmaker at heart", said in 2008: "I'm just grateful to have been given the opportunities I've had so far. It's not about money — it wouldn't matter if I was making £8m or £200m. I just want to go to bed at night and say I've done a good job."
Early life and education
Staveley was born in Yorkshire and in adulthood retained her Yorkshire accent. She is the daughter of Robert Staveley, a North Yorkshire landowner who founded the Lightwater ValleyLightwater Valley
Lightwater Valley is a theme park in Ripon, North Yorkshire, England. The park is perhaps best known for being the home of Europe’s longest rollercoaster - The Ultimate....
theme park, where Staveley waitressed as a child; her mother, Lynne, was an occasional model and champion showjumper. Staveley spent much of her childhood with her maternal grandparents. Her grandfather, Ralph Raper, made a fortune running a chain of betting shops, including "the biggest illegal betting shop in the North" in a Doncaster cellar where takings sometimes reached £10,000 a day. They later owned Doncaster dog track and profited further from investment in land and stocks. "He taught me everything", Staveley said. "I am always asking myself what he would do in a certain situation."
Staveley was educated at Queen Margaret's School, York
Queen Margaret's School, York
Queen Margaret's, York is an independent day and boarding school for girls age 11–18 in Escrick Park near York. The school was named after Queen Margaret the Queen of Scotland from c.1070–1093.-History:...
. She admitted to having lots of drive as a child and competed in showjumping and athletics. She ran 12.6 seconds for the hundred metres at the age of 14, before a snapped Achilles tendon ended her involvement in the sport. At 16 Staveley left school and enrolled at a crammer
Cram school
Cram schools are specialized schools that train their students to meet particular goals, most commonly to pass the entrance examinations of high schools or universities...
, taking her A-levels in a single year and winning a place to read modern languages at St Catharine's College, Cambridge
St Catharine's College, Cambridge
St. Catharine’s College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1473, the college is often referred to informally by the nickname "Catz".-History:...
. As a student she worked as a model to supplement her income. Staveley abandoned her degree after ending up in hospital suffering from stress after the death of her grandfather.
Early career and creation of Q.ton
In 1996, at the age of 22 and without any training, Staveley borrowed £180,000 and bought the restaurant, Stocks, in BottishamBottisham
Bottisham is a village and civil parish in the East Cambridgeshire district of Cambridgeshire, England, about east of Cambridge, halfway to Newmarket. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 1,983.-Church:...
between Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
and Newmarket. She would get up at about 4 am to begin preparing food and then waitressed in the evening having spent the afternoon writing business plans and studying for her city exams. "I lived and breathed business and banking," she later said. "I thought one day they would come in useful." Through the restaurant Staveley came to know members of Newmarket's racing community, in particular those associated with the Godolphin Racing stables owned by the Al Maktoum family
Al Maktoum
Al Maktoum is the family name of the ruling dynasty of the emirate of Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The Al Maktoum family is a branch of the Bani Yas tribe , a powerful bedouin clan from the interior...
of Dubai, as well as people from Cambridge's high-tech businesses. Through the late 1990s she started dealing in shares and became an active angel investor
Angel investor
An angel investor or angel is an affluent individual who provides capital for a business start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity...
, especially in dot.com enterprises and biotech firms such as Futura Medical.
"If I'm shown a good idea," she said, "I can't help but look."
Staveley closed Stocks and in 2000 opened Q.ton, a £10 million conference centre and facility developed in a joint venture with Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
on Cambridge Science Park
Cambridge Science Park
The Cambridge Science Park, founded by Trinity College in 1970, is the oldest science park in the United Kingdom. It is a concentration of science and technology related businesses, and has strong links with the nearby University of Cambridge....
. The investors in Q.ton were believed to include King Abdullah of Jordan
Abdullah II of Jordan
Abdullah II ibn al-Hussein is the reigning King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. He ascended the throne on 7 February 1999 after the death of his father King Hussein. King Abdullah, whose mother is Princess Muna al-Hussein, is a member of the Hashemite family...
, who visited the development in November 2001. That visit that was followed by a trip to Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
by Staveley as King Abdullah's guest. In 2000 she was named Businesswoman of the Year.
Q.ton and EuroTelecom
In 2000 Staveley sold a 49 per cent share in Q.ton to the telecoms company, EuroTelecom, for £2 million; Staveley joined the firm as a non-executive director. A few months later EuroTelecom went out of business in the collapse of the Dotcom boom. At the time it was claimed that Q.ton owed EuroTelecom £835,000 and that Staveley had agreed to buy back the company's 49 per cent stake, only for the money not to be forthcoming. Staveley denied having agreed any payments and in a statement said: "The work performed by EuroTelecom was vastly over-specified yet seriously defective ... there could be no question of our agreeing their claim." She hired Kroll Inc.Kroll Inc.
Kroll is a risk consultancy firm based in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. and established in 1972.- History:Kroll was founded in 1972 by Jules B. Kroll as a consultant to corporate purchasing departments...
to investigate the executive members of the EuroTelecom board.
Staveley bought EuroTelecom's stake in Q.ton from the firm's administrator PricewaterhouseCooper
PwC
PricewaterhouseCoopers is a global professional services firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest professional services firm measured by revenues and one of the "Big Four" accountancy firms....
, a deal that led to a discontinued petition of bankruptcy against her when payment was delayed. She began raising £35 million from private investors to roll the Q.ton concept out throughout the UK and Europe. However, the company failed. Staveley agreed an Individual Voluntary Arrangement
Individual Voluntary Arrangement
In the UK, an Individual Voluntary Arrangement is a formal alternative for individuals wishing to avoid bankruptcy.The IVA was established by and is governed by Part VIII of the Insolvency Act 1986 and constitutes a formal repayment proposal presented to a debtor's creditors via an Insolvency...
and in 2008 was paying back her creditors, including Barclays. "I was a cocky, arrogant bugger. Now I never want to go through something like that ever again," she said in 2008.
Background
After the failure of Q.ton Staveley moved to Dubai, cultivating connections centred on Abu DhabiAbu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi , literally Father of Gazelle, is the capital and the second largest city of the United Arab Emirates in terms of population and the largest of the seven member emirates of the United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi lies on a T-shaped island jutting into the Persian Gulf from the central western...
but extending across the Middle East. “She has absorbed their culture and respects them. That has put her in an extremely strong position,” one financial adviser commented. Mark Horrocks, a hedge fund manager, suggested that the "reasonably good standing" of the Staveley family allowed her to be accepted in the region. Staveley herself spoke of the excitement of working in the Middle East, adding, “There is something about the growth of this young economy that I saw in myself.”
In 2008 the Financial Times
Financial Times
The Financial Times is an international business newspaper. It is a morning daily newspaper published in London and printed in 24 cities around the world. Its primary rival is the Wall Street Journal, published in New York City....
described her firm, PCP Capital Partners, as really amounting to Staveley and her legal partner, Craig Eadie, and explained that, although based in Mayfair
Mayfair
Mayfair is an area of central London, within the City of Westminster.-History:Mayfair is named after the annual fortnight-long May Fair that took place on the site that is Shepherd Market today...
, London, the company acts "via offshore private equity affiliates" as a vehicle for the investment of Middle Eastern money, with Staveley acting as an adviser on those deals. One associate was quoted at this time as saying, "Amanda is known and trusted by her contacts in the Gulf like almost no other non-Arab. She has spent a decade building that relationship. She tells things as they are and has a clarity of purpose that they appreciate."
Barclays
These contacts brought Staveley to a new level of prominence at the end of 2008 with the investment of Middle Eastern funds in Barclays as the bank sought to recapitalise by raising money privately rather than accept a bail-out from the British government following the financial crisis of that year. Roger JenkinsRoger Jenkins (banker)
Roger Allan Jenkins joined BTG Pactual, Brazil's largest independent investment bank and asset manager, in early 2011. He is on the Management committee and on the Investment committee...
, reputedly the highest paid banker in the City
City of London
The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...
, was responsible for delivering Quatari involvement in the deal, while Staveley advised Sheikh Mansour on his £3.5 billion investment, for which he gained control of 16 per cent of the bank. At the time Staveley said: "We would happily have gone further. We could have taken up to 25 per cent." Staveley, who said that she had been watching Barclays for some time, had begun talking to Sheikh Mansour about investment opportunities in British banking six months previously.
Manchester City and Liverpool
The Barclays deal followed Sheikh Mansour's £210 million purchase of Manchester City F.C.Manchester City F.C.
Manchester City Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Manchester. Founded in 1880 as St. Mark's , they became Ardwick Association Football Club in 1887 and Manchester City in 1894...
in September of the same year through the Abu Dhabi United Group
Abu Dhabi United Group
The Abu Dhabi United Group for Development and Investment is a United Arab Emirates private equity company owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, member of the Abu Dhabi Royal Family and Minister of Presidential Affairs for the UAE...
, a transaction reportedly worth £10 million in commission to PCP Capital Partners. At the same time Staveley was involved in extended negotiations by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum
Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum
Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum , also Sheikh Mohammed, , is the Prime Minister and Vice President of the United Arab Emirates , and absolute monarch of Dubai.-Personal life and education:...
's Dubai International Capital
Dubai International Capital
Dubai International Capital is the international investment arm of Dubai Holding, a holding company and sovereign wealth fund of the government of Dubai and its ruling family and has been over-leveraged to the point whereby the company is not able to service its interest payments in a normal fashion...
to buy a 49 per cent stake in Liverpool Football Club, although the deal, which would have given Staveley a place on the club's board, eventually foundered.
Other deals
Also in 2008 Staveley fronted a bid by the Qatar Investment AuthorityQatar Investment Authority
The Qatar Investment Authority is Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, specializing in domestic and foreign investment. It was founded in 2005 to manage the oil and natural gas surpluses by the Government of Qatar...
to buy the Trillium facilities management business from the Land Securities property group, an offer reportedly totaling £1.1 billion. The bid in the end came to nothing in the autumn of that year and Trillium was sold to Telereal
Telereal Trillium
Telereal Trillium Ltd is a commercial property management and investment company, headquartered in central London. It is wholly owned by the Pears family, via the William Pears Group and family trust-based holdings.-History:...
for £750 million in January 2009.
Later that year Staveley was involved in an attempt to help finance the $13.5 billion sale of Barclays Global Investors to the US firm BlackRock
BlackRock
BlackRock, Inc. is an American multinational investment management corporation and the world's largest asset manager. BlackRock is headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States and is the leading provider of investment, advisory, and risk management solutions...
, offering $2.8 billion of funding in return for a shareholding of 10 per cent, an amount that reportedly included a commitment of Staveley's own money. In June 2009, with details being finalised, Blackrock pulled out of the deal. Press reports at the time suggested that BlackRock had sought further clarification of the identity of the investors behind the special purpose vehicle created by PCP Capital Partners to handle the offer, although alternative reports claimed that they had always been aware of the conditions of the deal. In the end BlackRock funded its purchase of BGI from other sources.
In 2010 Staveley was reported to have advised the Qatari property investment company Barwa in their purchase of the Park House site on Oxford Street
Oxford Street
Oxford Street is a major thoroughfare in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, United Kingdom. It is Europe's busiest shopping street, as well as its most dense, and currently has approximately 300 shops. The street was formerly part of the London-Oxford road which began at Newgate,...
from Land Securities for £250 million, a deal that was said to have earned PCP Capital Partners in the region of £5 million to £7.5 million in fees.
Personal life
Staveley initially hit the tabloidTabloid
A tabloid is a newspaper with compact page size smaller than broadsheet, although there is no standard for the precise dimensions of the tabloid newspaper format...
headlines after dating The Duke of York
Prince Andrew, Duke of York
Prince Andrew, Duke of York KG GCVO , is the second son, and third child of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh...
in 2003. In 2011 she married Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
ian-born Mehrdad Ghodoussi.
Staveley lives in Dubai and has a house in London's Park Lane
Park Lane (road)
Park Lane is a major road in the City of Westminster, in Central London.-History:Originally a country lane running north-south along what is now the eastern boundary of Hyde Park, it became a fashionable residential address from the eighteenth century onwards, offering both views across Hyde Park...
.