El-Reacho Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 12 minutes ago, tinker said: One of my concerns about this deal is the fact David Bernstein and Mervyn King left Villa at a time when this deal would have been in negotiations, their business savy and have the Villa at heart......why did they walk away from the club and this deal if it was a good sound business deal? They were acting on behalf of Lerner so, like Hollis, would be gone when the takeover happened anyway. They walked for exactly the reasons they said - King subsequently came out and said how exciting things would be if the takeover went through. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam3773 Posted May 20, 2016 Author Share Posted May 20, 2016 The media are playing on a mistake on the OS and things that were possibly lost in translation. I suspect there's nothing to see here but time will tell. I'm still excited. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuwabatake Sanjuro Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 The biggest worry I have is that Xia doesn't have great wealth, that an entity like the Vibrac Corporation have lent the cash to him and will swallow up the parachute payments and then proceed to asset strip the club when Xia doesn't have the cash to pay them back. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vibrac_Corporation Quote Reading Reading secured a £10m loan against the August 2014 parachute payment due after their relegation from the Premier League, this was secured after relegation.[6] Upon receiving the £10m parachute payment Reading will owe Vibrac a remaining £1.5million. With Reading seemingly unable to make the remaining payment Vibrac called in BGT to oversee the sale of the club. Vibrac pushed through the sale of Adam Le Fondre to Cardiff and seemingly made things difficult for the chairman, Sir John Madejski, by changing terms of sale on several occasions. This led to many potential investors disengaging with the club, whilst Vibrac sought to push through sale to the mystery Phoenix consortium, which involves former Director, and person for bringing Vibrac into Reading, Chris Samuelson. This called the Football League to look into the inappropriate role that Vibrac have given themselves, of running the club without having undertaken the Fit and Proper Persons Test.[7] Reading were subsequently fined £30,000 by The Football League in March 2015 Maybe I'm being overly pessimistic. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jareth Posted May 20, 2016 VT Supporter Share Posted May 20, 2016 1 minute ago, El-Reacho said: This is suggesting that he might fail because of 'concerns over the financial muscle' of Recon. That has to be nonsense - the fit and proper test has nothing to do with wealth and nor should it. Most of the clubs in the football league are broke... Yes, I think that is it really. The powers that would rather not have a Chinese government funded premier league team competing against the status quo, will now do all they can to make this takeover difficult and will use every lever at their disposal including certain media outlets. But again, it comes back to Hollis, he will know exactly what is required of an international company when it comes to presenting financial credentials - if he thinks it will happen, it probably will. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeyAnty Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 2 minutes ago, Jareth said: Yes, I think that is it really. The powers that would rather not have a Chinese government funded premier league team competing against the status quo, will now do all they can to make this takeover difficult and will use every lever at their disposal including certain media outlets. But again, it comes back to Hollis, he will know exactly what is required of an international company when it comes to presenting financial credentials - if he thinks it will happen, it probably will. Think the only way financially he could fail the test is if he had been bankrupt before which i dont believe to be the case Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KHV Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 5 minutes ago, Kuwabatake Sanjuro said: The biggest worry I have is that Xia doesn't have great wealth, that an entity like the Vibrac Corporation have lent the cash to him and will swallow up the parachute payments and then proceed to asset strip the club when Xia doesn't have the cash to pay them back. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vibrac_Corporation Maybe I'm being overly pessimistic. No your not. Be very worried Mr Samuelson is involved in this. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jareth Posted May 20, 2016 VT Supporter Share Posted May 20, 2016 1 minute ago, HeyAnty said: Think the only way financially he could fail the test is if he had been bankrupt before which i dont believe to be the case Apparently there isn't a set of audited accounts for the Recon group - so I can see why that may raise a few eyebrows, but as a millionaire, surely Tony has a bank account of his own with 500 million quid in it and that would do the trick - Tony just shows them his last 3 bank statements and we're golden. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinker Posted May 20, 2016 VT Supporter Share Posted May 20, 2016 18 minutes ago, El-Reacho said: They were acting on behalf of Lerner so, like Hollis, would be gone when the takeover happened anyway. They walked for exactly the reasons they said - King subsequently came out and said how exciting things would be if the takeover went through. What was the trust issue? These two are proper business people with true credentials, King loves the Villa and he would have had all the facts, Lerner is just a distant figure with money , if there was loyalty to Lerner and the deal was 90% right he would have stopped, in fact they both would have. Resigning together is a statement , its not just fate, people like these two plan and would never just walk away on minor issues. If this was the deal on the table when they walked then in my opinion it doesn't seem right, the lack of accounts adds to this suspicion. My feeling is we will be refinanced to fund the deal after the sale goes through. Let's hope the football league take a real good look at this deal and speak , unofficially, to a couple of people who have all the facts at their disposal....... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post StanBalaban Posted May 20, 2016 Popular Post Share Posted May 20, 2016 Been out for most of the day, and have come back to see a level of doubt cast on our new lord and masters. Firstly, with Hollis and Xia confirming the deal is worth a lot more than the £60m quoted, it's a reasonable assumption to make that it's not Big Tone's personal wealth that is financing the purchase of the club. Especially if, as mooted, it's a cash deal paid in one installment. Secondly, there seems to be some misinformation on Recon and their ownership of various brands, but knowing KPMG as I do through my work, I'm satisfied that a bean counter such as Steve Hollis will know all about the 'source of funds' for the club sale. That doesn't necessarily mean that we're privy to this info, but I'm sure the people involved are happy with the arrangement. Basic AML on deals much smaller require a huge amount of evidentiary statements, accounts and data before being permitted, so the sale of an international brand in excess of £75,000,000 will require bucket loads. It's plausible that the company structure of Recon isn't what we initially thought it was, but that doesn't mean the funds aren't there. If a third party stated that Recon owned 5 brands but it turned out they only owned 2, but neither statement came from Dr. X then surely that's not a slight on him. Has he ever stated or mention the structure of Recon, or the source of funds for Aston Villa that's subsequently turned out to be false? 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinker Posted May 20, 2016 VT Supporter Share Posted May 20, 2016 Steve Hollis does not compare to Mervyn King when it comes to credentials, he's a minor player. King was the head of the whole British economy. King was in it for the love of the club, he left Hollis stayed. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob182 Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 Steve Hollis does not compare to Mervyn King when it comes to credentials, he's a minor player. King was the head of the whole British economy. King was in it for the love of the club, he left Hollis stayed. King was also the one who said that Lerner needs to sell, and was positive about our future (and presumably he would have known about the buyers putting offers on the table). He would have definitely said something in his resignation letter about buyer he deemed to be a disastrous choice. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanBalaban Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 4 minutes ago, tinker said: Steve Hollis does not compare to Mervyn King when it comes to credentials, he's a minor player. King was the head of the whole British economy. King was in it for the love of the club, he left Hollis stayed. Not many people do compare to Merv, but to be head of KPMG is not bad on the CV to be fair. I know what amount of paperwork is required when someone wants to take $10m of shareholder protection, in a basic keyman insurance case. Companies like AVIVA and Zurich will want shit loads of information to ensure the anti money laundering aspect is not a factor in the deal, plus the premium and sum assured is affordable and justifiable. This is something that we structure all the time, so I can't imagine what is required in order for a asset transfer such as our club sale. Randy's team will know whatever is worth knowing about Tony X, and for Steve Hollis, this sort of thing will be his bread and butter. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AntrimBlack Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 40 minutes ago, tinker said: What was the trust issue? These two are proper business people with true credentials, King loves the Villa and he would have had all the facts, Lerner is just a distant figure with money , if there was loyalty to Lerner and the deal was 90% right he would have stopped, in fact they both would have. Resigning together is a statement , its not just fate, people like these two plan and would never just walk away on minor issues. If this was the deal on the table when they walked then in my opinion it doesn't seem right, the lack of accounts adds to this suspicion. My feeling is we will be refinanced to fund the deal after the sale goes through. Let's hope the football league take a real good look at this deal and speak , unofficially, to a couple of people who have all the facts at their disposal....... You need to go back and re-read what they both said at the time if you are unwilling to accept the perfectly correct answers that have already been posted in the posts above. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Pangloss Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 1 hour ago, KHV said: No your not. Be very worried Mr Samuelson is involved in this. Yes, massive red flag. He is a **** crook. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarewsEyebrowDesigner Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 Is it confirmed that the 'Samuelson' involved is the guy that everyone is so worried about? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRO Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 We all want this to be a fairy tale...But we are right to challenge the validity. i suspect the thought of RL leaving us has got the better of our sense of judgement. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MessiWillSignForVilla Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 4 minutes ago, CarewsEyebrowDesigner said: Is it confirmed that the 'Samuelson' involved is the guy that everyone is so worried about? No it's not, it's a rumour that seems to stem from the fact there was a shirt that said Samuelson in that photo with Tony Xia in the locker room. He could be involved, but there's pretty much nothing to go on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuwabatake Sanjuro Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 5 minutes ago, MessiWillSignForVilla said: No it's not, it's a rumour that seems to stem from the fact there was a shirt that said Samuelson in that photo with Tony Xia in the locker room. He could be involved, but there's pretty much nothing to go on. It has been reported in many papers that Samuelson advised Tony Xia on the deal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MessiWillSignForVilla Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 Just now, Kuwabatake Sanjuro said: It has been reported in many papers that Samuelson advised Tony Xia on the deal. It's also been reported in many papers that Comoli was involved, and now he hasn't even been contacted by them... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuwabatake Sanjuro Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 (edited) 2 minutes ago, MessiWillSignForVilla said: It's also been reported in many papers that Comoli was involved, and now he hasn't even been contacted by them... Touché, but Comolli didn't have his jersey on the wall and doesn't have past links with Wyness. On the balance of probabilities it is almost certain that Samuelson is involved. Edited May 20, 2016 by Kuwabatake Sanjuro Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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