Sunderland's chief operating officer Steve Davison is hopeful that Kyril Louis-Dreyfus can reach an agreement to buy the shareholdings of Charlie Methven and Stewart Donald following this week's revelations concerning the ownership of the club.
Fans reacted with fury earlier this week when the club disclosed that, while Louis-Dreyfus is the single largest shareholder with a 41 percent stake, the members of the Madrox group, Donald, Methven, and Juan Sartori, together still hold 59 percent of the shares.
Supporters have long wanted the Madrox men to sell up, and were under the impression that Louis-Dreyfus had bought a majority stake in Sunderland last February and that Donald, Methven, and Sartori had retained token stakes rather than the 34 percent, five percent, and 20 percent holdings they actually still own.
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However, in the wake of this week's furore, a spokesman for Donald has said : "He has made it clear throughout that he is happy to sell the remainder of his shares internally to the other shareholders at the same level he has already accepted initially."
And Methven is also willing to sell, saying this week: "Like Stewart, I would be very happy to sell my shares."
Sartori has so far said nothing but his family and the Louis-Dreyfus' are friends and it is likely that he will retain his stake going forward. But with both Stewart and Methven now on record as 'willing sellers', Davison is hopeful that Louis-Dreyfus can now buy more shares in the club.
"I understand that a statement was made on Wednesday morning from Stewart [Donald] and Charlie [Methven] that they are willing to sell their shares in the football club," said Davison.
"Clearly, for any transaction to happen you need to have a willing seller and also a willing buyer. So it appears that we have willing sellers in terms of what they have said.
"We believe that Kyril is interested in purchasing more shares in the football club moving forward, so you would hope that they could reach some conclusion around the sale of those shares to Kyril."
Another major concern for supporters is where control of the club lies, given that Louis-Dreyfus currently owns only 41 percent of the shares.
But Davison has moved to reassure fans, revealing that the shareholder agreement makes clear that, regardless of the size of the stakes, Louis-Dreyfus has 'full control' of the club and is responsible for all decisions - and that the Swiss businessman insisted upon that as a condition of buying into the club.
Neither Donald nor Methven sit on the Sunderland board and both confirmed this week that they do not have an active role in running the club, although they say are continuing to honour their funding commitments.
Davison said: "Kyril has 41 percent of the shares but he has full control of the club, is responsible and accountable for all of the decisions that get made.
"He works closely with the board and the executive team to make those decisions and implement them.
"When he bought the club, it was on the basis that he would take full control, and that he would make all the decisions at the football club. If that had not been the case, he would not have proceeded with the sale.
"That control is documented as part of a shareholder agreement which defines how the club is run, and this is common practice in many organisations. Practically it means that Kyril makes all the decisions, in conjunction with the board and the executive team. We have operated in that way since Kyril took control."
Davison also confirmed that the Madrox group has not yet repaid the full balance of the £20.5m parachute payment money they wrote off as an 'exceptional operating expense' in the club's 2018-19 accounts.
Around £11m was still outstanding at the point Louis-Dreyfus bought into the club 12 months ago and more has been repaid since by Donald, Methven, and Sartori. Writing off the money meant they were no longer under a legal obligation to repay the cash, but Madrox have publicly stated that they will replace the parachute money in full.
Davison said: "Around about £11m of the parachute payment was outstanding at the time Kyril took control of the club.
"Since that moment, Kyril and the other shareholders have been funding the club, and the pandemic has meant there have been a lot of additional costs to cover.
"At this stage, the parachute payments have not been repaid in full."
Louis-Dreyfus is currently out of the country, but he will return next week when he is expected to meet supporters' groups to answer questions head on.
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