Amanda Staveley ‘didn’t have the funds’ to buy Newcastle stake, claims Mike Ashley

Neither Amanda Staveley nor her firm, PCP Capital Partners, “had the funds necessary” to buy her 10 per cent stake in Newcastle United, according to a lawsuit brought by the club’s former owner, Mike Ashley – in stark contradiction of her insistence that family money and the sale of a hotel was used to buy the shares.

The legal action states that fellow consortium members, the Reuben brothers, lent £30.5 million to Staveley’s company, Cantervale Ltd, for the 10 per cent shareholding. It adds that Ashley’s company, St James Holdings Ltd (SJHL), lent her a further £10 million on October 7 as she was “also unable to meet the advisory, legal and other costs and commissions associated with” the takeover.

The High Court filing by