Amanda Staveley

On 20 November 2017, Staveley submitted a failed bid in the region of £300 million to buy Newcastle United, but interest appeared to have been revived by April 2020.

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. In March 2012 it was announced that Waterway PCP Properties Ltd, a Middle Eastern private equity group fronted by Staveley, had paid Land Securities £234 million for their Arundel Great Court site on the north bank of the Thames in London.

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 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 Mansour's high-profile purchase of Manchester City Football Club in September 2008.

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 out the Q.ton concept 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.

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.

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 Jenkins, reputedly the highest-paid banker in the City, was responsible for delivering Qatari 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. Staveley earned a fee of £30 million for her role in the transaction. In 2010, The Daily Telegraph reported that Mansour's disposal of his stake in Barclays had made him a profit of about £2.25 billion.

Also in 2008 Staveley fronted a bid by the Qatar Investment Authority 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 and Trillium was sold to Telereal for £750 million in January 2009.

Staveley initially hit the tabloid headlines after dating Prince Andrew, Duke of York, in 2003. In 2011 she married Iranian-born Mehrdad Ghodoussi.

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. Investors in Q.ton were believed to include King Abdullah of Jordan.

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 stake, only for the money not to be forthcoming. Staveley denied having agreed to any payments and hired Kroll Inc. to investigate the members of the EuroTelecom board.

In 1996, at the age of 22 and without any training, Staveley borrowed £180,000 and bought the restaurant, Stocks, in Bottisham between Cambridge and Newmarket.

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.

Amanda Louise Staveley (born 11 April 1973 near Ripon, North Yorkshire, England) is a British businesswoman notable chiefly for her connections with Middle Eastern investors.