ENIC

What is their field of operation?

Formerly named as the English National Investment Company, the company organises itself into three operating divisions: Sports, Entertainment, and Media and Gaming. In sports, its main activity is football club ownership.

The time was when football clubs used to be owned by one self-made man (usually.) Fans were reliant on the generosity of the owner as to whether 'their' club would invest for success or stagnate as it was starved of funds. The growing commercialisation of the game rapidly changed this model, with more and more clubs adopting PLC status. This gave those clubs that opted for it, the chance to raise funds from the stock market.

At around the same time, some companies have been seeking to generate revenue streams from owning a range of football clubs. Multiple ownership of clubs can be seen as the football equivalent of building an investment portfolio.

ENIC are one of the most striking examples of this phenomenon. At the time of writing, they held shareholdings in six European football clubs: AEK Athens, FC Basel, Glasgow Rangers, Tottenham Hotspur and Vicenza Calcio.

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