Key figure in Sheffield United takeover saga unmasked - but who is Steven Rosen and what's his background?

Another key player in the ongoing Sheffield United takeover saga has been unmasked, with American businessman Steven Rosen now leading the bid to buy the Blades. Rosen, who hails from Ohio, is a co-founder of Resilience Capital Partners and also helped set up another company specialising in investments in defence and aerospace.

Rosen’s identity was revealed this week by US publication Bloomberg, having previously been kept a closely-guarded secret by the consortium hoping to seal a deal with current owner Prince Abdullah for control of the Blades. A graduate of the University of Maryland, Rosen’s individual net worth is not public information although property records in the States showed that he recently purchased a home at the prestigious Royal Palm yacht and country club in Florida for $6.7 million.

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Rosen founded Resilience in 2001 when he was 30 years old, with the firm typically making equity investments of $10m to $75 million in a wide range of sectors including manufacturing, distribution and transport logistics. Resilience’s website says that the group “invest[s] in high-quality businesses that are hard to replicate and typically have high integrity quality management, attractive cash flow potential, generate excellent returns on re-invested capital and have minimal risk of being disrupted in the near future.

“Resilience has capital available and is open to any and all investment structures and securities. This transaction approach provides flexibility to accommodate the requirements and needs of businesses, sellers and their advisors. Resilience has raised and advised funds with aggregate capital commitments in excess of $675 million for our global investor base which includes pension funds, insurance companies, foundations and endowments, fund of funds, wealth managers, and investment consultants.”

In a 2019 interview with Leaders Magazine, Rosen said of Resilience’s approach: “We see opportunities two ways: incoming through our network of relationships, from which we see over 1,000 opportunities per year, and in our outgoing strategy, where we’re building an investment thesis in an industry and end market segment need. We look for niche market opportunities, which are what firms of our size should focus on. Half of our portfolio has been built on outgoing searches for niche opportunities.”

Asked how important is cultural fit when bringing in talent for Resilience, Rosen replied: “It’s very important. Having the right attitude at the top and in the ownership group creates enthusiasm. A great leader should be able to create more great leaders. Leaders having conviction is also important and that comes from someone knowing what they’re doing.”

Prince Abdullah has been open to selling United for some time now, with previous agreed deals with another American, Henry Mauriss, collapsing before Nigerian businessman Dozy Mmobuosi failed to convince the EFL he had the capability to run the Blades before being charged with fraud by the SEC in the United States. A deal with the US-based consortium was agreed earlier this year and EFL approval has been granted, with the takeover subsequently hitting a stumbling block over some of its finer points.