Danny Fiszman

Daniel David Fiszman (9 January 1945 – 13 April 2011) was a diamond dealer, best known as a shareholder in and director of Arsenal Football Club, and played a leading role in the club's move from Highbury to Ashburton Grove, now known as Emirates Stadium.

Early life

Fiszman was born in Willesden, North London ^[1] and was the son of a Belgian Jewish couple who fled the Nazis during World War II.

Career

Fiszman made his fortune in diamonds, building Star Diamonds Group which traded in rough diamonds.^[2] Star Diamonds Group also owns 16% in Abbeycrest, whose major clients include Argos and Asda. He sold the group in 2007 for £150M, to concentrate on his role in completing Arsenal's new stadium.^[3]

Other shareholdings took his total worth to around £236m, ranking him 348th on the 2008 Sunday Times Rich List ^[4] (351st in 2007, 273rd in 2006, 305th in 2005 and 207th in 2004).

Arsenal Football Club

Fiszman bought into Arsenal Football Club and became a board member through his purchase of an 8% stake from his friend David Dein, starting with 2,840 shares in 1999.^[5] Fiszman slowly increased his stake to 24%, the largest shareholder as at 27 September 2007,^[6] at which point he led the building of the new Ashburton Grove stadium.

In March 2007 Fiszman sold a block of 659 shares for over £3.9m to Stan Kroenke Sports Enterprises (KSE).^[7] This was a significant sale as reducing his stake to less than 25% resulted in a loss of veto rights over any future changes to the company statutes. Speculation linked this with a move abroad where he would substantially reduce any Capital Gains Tax liability that would come with a sale of his stake in the club.^[8] Fiszman stated his desire not sell any more of his shares for the foreseeable future,^[9] after the sale of 5,000 ordinary shares to Kroenke takes the American's stake in Arsenal Holdings plc to 12,756 Shares (representing 20.5%). On 27 March 2009 Fiszman sold 5,000 ordinary shares of £1 each in Arsenal Holdings plc to KSE, UK, Inc, at a price of £8,500 per share.^[10]

On 11 April 2011, two days before his death, he sold his Arsenal shares amounting to 16.11% of club's stake to Stan Kroenke,^[11] due to his declining health.

Personal life

Fiszman and his wife Sally lived in St Prex near Geneva, Switzerland. His hobbies included running and flying, he was a fully qualified commercial jet pilot. Fiszman had been undergoing treatment for throat cancer at the time of his death.^[12]

He died on 13 April 2011.^[13]

References

1. ^ Danny Fiszman: a brief view - Mail Online
2. ^ Graff ranked as 36th richest in Britain^{[dead link]} - DIB Online
3. ^ David Bond (20 Apr 2007). "Fiszman the power behind throne". London: Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2007/04/20/sfnfis20.xml. Retrieved 10 April, 2011. 
4. ^ Danny Fiszman on Sunday Times' Rich List
5. ^ Kicking Around^{[dead link]} - Sportstar
6. ^ Wyett, Charlie (9 May 2007). "Whos who on Gunners board". The Sun (London). http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2002390000-2007180318,00.html. ^{[dead link]}
7. ^ [1]^{[dead link]} - Plus Market Statement
8. ^ [2] Guardian Unlimited
9. ^ [3]^{[dead link]} Arsenal.com
10. ^ Club Statement: Arsenal Holdings plc - Arsenal.com
11. ^ "Arsenal investor Fiszman 'sell shares'". Plus-sx. 11 April 2011. http://www.plus-sx.com/newsItem.html?newsId=1155049. 
12. ^ "Charles Sale: Danny Fiszman's fight is worry for Arsenal". London: Daily Mail. 11 January 2010. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1242174/Charles-Sale-Fiszmans-fight-worry-Arsenal.html. Retrieved 11 January 2010. 
13. ^ "Danny Fiszman 1945-2011". arsenal.com. 13 April 2011. http://www.arsenal.com/usa/sh/news/news-archive/danny-fiszman-1945-2011. Retrieved 13 April 2011. 

External Links

• Danny Fiszman- The Independent (UK) Obituary - April 2011 By Martin Childs

Persondata
Name	Fiszman, Danny
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	9 January 1945
Place of birth	Willesden, North London
Date of death	13 April 2011
Place of death