Hibs hold tantalising talks with £7billion big dog as potential new partnership emerges

The report that Danish billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen has held "informal" talks with Hibs owner Ian Gordon is what’s described as a good old-fashioned talker. It’s fair to assume these discussions won’t have been about the price of daily fishing permits on one of Povlsen’s 13 Scottish estates. Nor were they likely to have been about ASOS, the online only fashion retailer in which he is the major shareholder, producing next season’s Hibs strips.

In these potentially shifting times for Scottish football, where everyone now thinks they might have a chance of a shot at glory providing they link up with a financial big dog, it’s not surprising one of the biggest dogs out there represents such a tantalising prospect.

Gordon would not be doing his job properly were he not attempting to pick the brains of someone whose expansive portfolio stretches into football via Danish side FC Midtjylland, who are currently second in the Danish Superliga. Nigerian talent academy team FC Ebedei are also in the retail tycoon’s so-called football collective, as are Danish side FC Fredericia and Portuguese third tier club C.D. Mafra.

Having recently withdrawn from a multi-club group situation, after cutting ties with investor Bill Foley’s Black Knights, could Hibs be about to partner up again? It wouldn’t be a tremendous surprise if so. With fan-owned Hearts sitting top of the league, Hibs have to be seen to be doing something other than selling one of their best players. Striker Kieron Bowie is currently being linked with a £5 million move to Serie A side Hellas Verona.

The meeting with Povlsen was serendipitous. It is one of several positives of playing in European football. Meeting new people, observing different football environments. And who could fail to be impressed with what FC Midtjylland are doing?

The Danish club, formed in 1999, enjoyed heady times and three Superliga title wins during the sports data-driven reign of Brentford owner Matthew Benham. They have been champions once more since Povlsen bought a majority stake in 2023 and are currently sitting fourth in the Europa League standings, just two points off leaders Lyon.

Midtjylland qualified for the league stage by narrowly defeating Hibs in a qualifying tie in August. Povlsen was at the first leg in Denmark, where it’s understood conversations with Gordon first took place. It might be one reason why the Hibs chairman felt emboldened to end the relationship with the Black Knights. If something can be done with Povlsen, why continue in a relationship that clearly wasn’t working for either side after just 20 months? Was Gordon confident of another potential sweetheart waiting in the wings?

The sweetheart in this scenario is Povlsen, who is estimated to be worth around £7 billion. Estimates are often what people are restricted to making with regards to the 53-year-old, who has always guarded his privacy very fiercely indeed.

He rose from 24th to 23rd in the most recent Sunday Times Rich List, published in May last year, thanks to what was calculated as a £974 million increase in worth.

“I wish I were not on such lists,” he told the Strathspey and Badenoch Herald at the time. “There is not much positive about it. Let’s do what is much more meaningful – talk a bit about WildLand and what’s happening around us.” WildLand is a 200-year conservation project led by Povlsen in the Cairngorms, Loch Ness and Sutherland. It’s an abiding passion. So where might Hibs fit in?

It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that having hovered around British football, Povlsen is simply waiting for the right chance to become involved somewhere. And why not Scotland? He spends a lot of time the in country, after all. Indeed, he owns about one per cent of it.

He has been linked with Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Dundee United in the past. More recently he was credited with having an interest in buying the seemingly eternally troubled Sheffield Wednesday out of administration.

“He is a very quiet man, you might even describe him as introverted. He does not seek the limelight by any means,” one contributor to a BBC Radio 4 profile of Povlsen, broadcast in 2021, explained. The fact the programme is so short – just 15 minutes – is itself a comment on the Dane’s determination to avoid publicity. He isn’t Elon Musk, put it that way.

As the presenter of the BBC profile portrays him, “he’s less obsessed with life on Mars, more life on earth”. Now Scotland’s largest private landowner, Povlsen is intent on restoring the Scottish Highlands for future generations by bringing back ancient fauna and wildlife, including wolves, while developing tourism.

Restoring the good times at Hibs might be a bolder project, particularly given Hearts’ recent strides. The Easter Road club last won the Scottish league title in 1952. Wolves could roam the Highlands when they next do, which might be sooner than you think.