The 2016 Takeover Thread

[Kingman]

27 minutes ago, Gary Thomas said:

Bit worrying. In essence, Aston Villa’s Chinese buyer does not ‘control 5 listed companies as was claimed on the OS - it only has a significant controlling stake in Lotus Health atm and that made a loss last year.  Some spokesman for Recon said it was down to a “miscommunication” with Aston Villa, and that the OS statement would be corrected. FT suggesting the incorrect information raises questions about the due diligence on Tony Xia.

Edit.  they have changed the statement on the OS.  When the sale was announced it read: “Recon Group is a privately owned holding company that owns the controlling interest in five publicly listed companies on the Hong Kong and Chinese stock exchanges.”

Now it reads, “Recon Group is a privately owned holding company that owns, directly and indirectly, the shares of several publicly listed companies on the Hong Kong and Chinese stock exchanges and many other private companies.”

http://www.avfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10265~5580405,00.html

Oh well bruv... it's onny money!

Edited May 20, 2016 by Kingman

[Dr_Pangloss]

29 minutes ago, Gary Thomas said:

Bit worrying. In essence, Aston Villa’s Chinese buyer does not ‘control 5 listed companies as was claimed on the OS - it only has a significant controlling stake in Lotus Health atm and that made a loss last year.  Some spokesman for Recon said it was down to a “miscommunication” with Aston Villa, and that the OS statement would be corrected. FT suggesting the incorrect information raises questions about the due diligence on Tony Xia.

Edit.  they have changed the statement on the OS.  When the sale was announced it read: “Recon Group is a privately owned holding company that owns the controlling interest in five publicly listed companies on the Hong Kong and Chinese stock exchanges.”

Now it reads, “Recon Group is a privately owned holding company that owns, directly and indirectly, the shares of several publicly listed companies on the Hong Kong and Chinese stock exchanges and many other private companies.”

http://www.avfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10265~5580405,00.html

My first instinct when the takeover was announced was that there's something dodgy about this and the aftermath has hardly helped to set my mind right. I guess we'll see how things unfold over the next few seasons. 

The takeover, the way I see it, is hardly something to get delirious about. It wouldn't surprise me at all if the net worth figures banded about are vastly over-estimated (evidence thus far appears to be suggesting this), and all the Dr's talk about being a global "top 3 club" is utter pie in the sky nonsense. In fact so ridiculous that you have to question his foresight on this. 

Edited May 20, 2016 by Dr_Pangloss

[jacketspuds]

Never a dull day to be a Villa fan. Apart from match days of course.

[chrisp65]

Isn't it absolutely fascinating to see the euphoria that is so easily created. Don't get me wrong, I really wanted rid of Lerner and I accept we have to move with the times and I hope we have the money to be successful. But wow, the promise of money has got what feels like an awful lot of people happy to abandon any sense of caution or critical thinking. I'm not suggesting the new owner is a charlatan, no idea one way or the other...yet. But this last couple of days does illustrate why in 2016 we still see so many people taken in by scams and cons. Just the most basic rule, 'if it appears too good to be true...' has gone out of the window. There are people on here happy to sign up to a name change and a relocation and anything else. All because the new guy is rumoured to be rich. The new guy we know nothing about that Randy Lerner has decided to do business with. Suddenly we are blindly accepting Randy Lerner's ability to pick a winner?

Anyway, just needed to get that off my chest. I'm too old to get excited about Christmas coming early. I'm actually looking forward to next season, to actually attending. Not for billionaire expansion, but for seeing a different bunch of opposition teams. I'd prefer to win a cup from the Championship than spend eternity as the 6th best premier team. As for winning the Prem., well what would be the point of that if you just went out and bought it? 

I'd prefer to be stood directly behind the goal with a pie, than sat in the third tier of the Lotus Super Soccer Arena (just off the NEC junction) with a selfie stick. Whether the new guy is anywhere near capable of producing the Lotus Super Soccer Arena.....

I guess we'll have a much better idea of how this is shaping up once we've got 3 months of the Championship under our belts.

I hope he's a good owner and that we all do well out of this. In an old fashioned footballing sort of way.

[Gary Thomas]

i think I going to trust that Steve Hollis is not an idiot and he would have been given a lot of information about all his businesses.  I am 100% convinced he would have done due diligence and is confident the guy can deliver on what he has promised.

[GENTLEMAN]

This is hugely embarrassing for Hollis and Lerner.

[PieFacE]

So when do we start the protests? 

[Deisler123]

The key thing, in my opinion, is whether or not he has got state-money backing him up.

From all the evidence I've seen, it is a 50-50 chance.

As a Chinese, I have seen the recent development in Chinese football league, and I can tell you this:

If he is all by himself in this take over - i will be very cautiously pessimistic on this. 

If he is backed up by state money - i am very optimistic.

[dn1982]

44 minutes ago, Fairy In Boots said:

people who say football moved on, why don't Liverpool, Man U. Everton rebrand ? oh yeah because they are a brand in themselves Villa and Villa park are a brand.

Man Utd have virtually everything possible sponsored in some form! Real Madrid are getting a roof and that's sponsored. The Emirates The Eithad are all deals to get round FFP. We have a lot of ground to be made up so if we can leverage any money off of naming rights to help us close the gap I'm all for it. 

[Villarocker]

Is anybody worried/concerned/suspicious that Lerner - either out of spite or purely to make himself look like less of a failure - sold us to someone that he knew or suspected couldn't take Villa to where us fans want our club to be?

[jacketspuds]

7 minutes ago, GENTLEMAN said:

This is hugely embarrassing for Hollis and Lerner.

Certainly could be. I'm going to give Hollis the benefit of the doubt for now but if it was purely Lerner's decision I'd be concerned.

[Stevo985]

1 minute ago, villarocker said:

Is anybody worried/concerned/suspicious that Lerner - either out of spite or purely to make himself look like less of a failure - sold us to someone that he knew or suspected couldn't take Villa to where us fans want our club to be?

I don't think Lerner has any spite towards us, despite what some people like to say.

[ccfcman]

Just now, villarocker said:

Is anybody worried/concerned/suspicious that Lerner - either out of spite or purely to make himself look like less of a failure - sold us to someone that he knew or suspected couldn't take Villa to where us fans want our club to be?

Isn't it suggested that if we are promoted he gets more? If true I feel this rather neutralises the Lerner paranoia.

[Dr_Pangloss]

3 minutes ago, Deisler123 said:

The key thing, in my opinion, is whether or not he has got state-money backing him up.

From all the evidence I've seen, it is a 50-50 chance.

As a Chinese, I have seen the recent development in Chinese football league, and I can tell you this:

If he is all by himself in this take over - i will be very cautiously pessimistic on this. 

If he is backed up by state money - i am very optimistic.

I'm struggling to see where he has got all this money from (outrageous net worth figures being suggested) without State support. Either that or he's a fraud.  

[AndyC]

The fact that the OS has been changed is very embarrassing. I think we have to assume that this guy is backed by the state to be making the claims that he is otherwise he will also be looking very stupid very soon.

[Gary Thomas]

2 minutes ago, Deisler123 said:

The key thing, in my opinion, is whether or not he has got state-money backing him up.

From all the evidence I've seen, it is a 50-50 chance.

As a Chinese, I have seen the recent development in Chinese football league, and I can tell you this:

If he is all by himself in this take over - i will be very cautiously pessimistic on this. 

If he is backed up by state money - i am very optimistic.

I agree with this.  There also seem to be a lot of private companies (not listed) that we really know nothing about.  For example, Hollis on the OS said, "If you look at Tony Xia's business career in China, he has been instrumental in the regeneration and the building of over 60 of the new cities and relocating 500 million people into the urban areas."  Well that sounds like a pretty lucrative business but it is probably not listed so the FT or anyone else has no information about it - hopefully Hollis does.

[mwj]

I think it's a generational thing, everybody says call us this as it's progress.  Outsourcing manufacturing was "Progress" stocks & Shares are "progress" i'm sure Judas thought his 30 pieces of silver was "progress" don't let greed blind you we'll be a poorer club for selling out.

Generational thing? Twas ever thus mate.

Maybe you should move planets.

[dn1982]

He'll pass the fit and proper test as its not really to do with wealth more to do with character so as long as he's proven funds to Lerner he'll sell. Whether he has the clout to fulfill his ideas is something we will no more come 31st August. 

[ccfcman]

2 minutes ago, Gary Thomas said:

I agree with this.  There also seem to be a lot of private companies (not listed) that we really know nothing about.  For example, Hollis on the OS said, "If you look at Tony Xia's business career in China, he has been instrumental in the regeneration and the building of over 60 of the new cities and relocating 500 million people into the urban areas."  Well that sounds like a pretty lucrative business but it is probably not listed so the FT or anyone else has no information about it - hopefully Hollis does.

Relocating half a billion folks rather does have a suggestion of state sponsorship.

[Deisler123]

1 minute ago, Gary Thomas said:

I agree with this.  There also seem to be a lot of private companies (not listed) that we really know nothing about.  For example, Hollis on the OS said, "If you look at Tony Xia's business career in China, he has been instrumental in the regeneration and the building of over 60 of the new cities and relocating 500 million people into the urban areas."  Well that sounds like a pretty lucrative business but it is probably not listed so the FT or anyone else has no information about it - hopefully Hollis does.

In China there is little transparency in business - because all companies more or less have involvement of government one way or another. So there is no way you can know a value of a company, unless they want you to know.

But considering he has got some bad reputation before in China about being fraud (people talked about it), it is 50-50 chance now.

Better to be positive on this - until you see the negativity - i guess.