The 2016 Takeover Thread

[Jareth]

The Times now happy to call him one of China's richest men...

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/business/lerners-big-score-if-villa-are-promoted-pv6wqlhll

"Randy Lerner, the American sports tycoon who is selling Aston Villa to one of China’s richest men, is in line for a payout worth tens of millions should the club bounce back to the Premier League."

[Villan4Life]

don't know if already posted?

 

http://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/article/article.aspx?aid=3019116

 

Quote

Takeover of Aston Villa part of China’s expansion
May 25,2016

Chinese money is extending its reach to European football. In its latest attempt to become the global football titan, a Chinese conglomerate has taken 100 percent control over a 
142-year-old club in the “home of football,” England.

Aston Villa announced on May 19 that Chinese Recon Group led by CEO Xia Jiantong bought full ownership of the club from its previous owner Randy Lerner. Aston Villa, which was established in 1874, was sold to American investor Lerner in 2006 at ￡62.2 million ($90.4 million) before the Recon Group bought the club for a reported ￡60 million after its relegation this year to the Championship, the second level of English football.

After recording a ￡27 million operating loss in 2016 alone, Aston Villa finished at the bottom of the English Premier League standings. With the profit from TV rights and tickets plummeting, a rumor went around that as many as 500 Villa employees would be let go after the season. It might just have been a rumor, but there was no doubt that Aston Villa was suffering from substandard management and financial deficit. Lerner had already placed Villa on sale in 2014, valuing it at an estimated ￡200 million.

Chinese capital saved the day for the struggling English club. “Recon Group is a multinational conglomerate group led by Dr. Xia Jiantong,” according to the official announcement by Aston Villa on its website. “The group holding company owns, directly and indirectly, the shares of several publicly listed companies on the Hong Kong and Chinese stock exchanges and many other private companies employing 35,000 people in 75 countries.”

When the Recon Group stepped in to save Aston Villa from its financial and management plight, the group’s CEO, who is little known outside China, came under the spotlight. Xia Jiantong, a 39-year-old businessman from Quzhou, Zhejiang, earned his degree from Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology in landscape design before returning to China in late 1990’s to expand his career as a businessman in planning. He took over the Recon Group in 2004 and has headed the Chinese holding company since then.

According to Aston Villa’s official statement, Xia played football in college as a striker and “decided to buy an iconic football Club in England as the cornerstone of his sports, leisure and tourism division.” Xia’s immediate goal, according to the statement on Villa’s website, is to “return Aston Villa to the Premier League and then to have the club finish in the top six, bringing European football back to Villa Park … to make Aston Villa the most famous football Club in China with a huge fan base.”

In his interview with the Associated Press, Xia said, “in sport, it’s crucial to consider spirit, psychology, leaders’ attitudes. Especially for Villa now, the biggest priority for us is to fix everyone’s confidence, from the players to the coaches.’’

Xia taking over ownership of one of the oldest football clubs in the world is the latest move by China after the Chinese Football Association published a report on April 11 with an interim plan to become a “football superpower,” a passion of Chinese President Xi Jinping who is known to be an avid football fan.

Since President Xi declared China’s intention to become a global football power, Chinese conglomerates have been expanding their grasp in the sport, including the huge amount of money invested during last winter’s transfer window to recruit world-class footballers. The Chinese Super League, the first tier-division in China, spent about $284 million over the offseason transfer period, eclipsing the spendings of European leagues including the English Premier League which spent about $272 million.

While enlarging the size of its domestic football league, China is extending its reach overseas. In January 2015, Wanda Group, China’s biggest real estate company, bought 20% of ownership of Spain’s Atletico Madrid. In England before Aston Villa, a consortium of China Media Capital Holdings and China CITIC Bank invested $400 million to assume 13% stake in City Football Group (CFG), the Abu Dhabi-based company that owns Manchester City, in December last year.

“We have worked hard to find the right partners and to create the right deal structure to leverage the incredible potential that exists in China, both for CFG and for football at large,” said Khaldoon Al Mubarak, the chairman of City Football Group.

Although China has been involved in buying interest in other offshore football clubs, Aston Villa is the first time a Chinese firm bought out 100% ownership of a European football club.

The infiltration of Chinese capital into European football is only expected to grow. Recent local media reports in Italy suggested that Chinese firms such as Alibaba are in the process of acquiring ownership for Italian football clubs such as AC Milan.

Simon Chadwick, Professor of Sport Business Strategy and Marketing at Coventry University, United Kingdom, concurred, saying that China has only begun its effort to take over the global football market.

 

[GeneralJazzman]

13 minutes ago, Jareth said:

The Times now happy to call him one of China's richest men...

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/business/lerners-big-score-if-villa-are-promoted-pv6wqlhll

"Randy Lerner, the American sports tycoon who is selling Aston Villa to one of China’s richest men, is in line for a payout worth tens of millions should the club bounce back to the Premier League."

Shame it gets to the point where people close to him are debunking the rumours and I need a subscription.....doh!

[Jareth]

Just now, GeneralJazzman said:

Shame it gets to the point where people close to him are debunking the rumours and I need a subscription.....doh!

I know. I'm too tight to give murdoch any cash, someone here must have a times subscription non? anyone?

[Vive_La_Villa]

He's dodgy ain't he? 

[CarewsEyebrowDesigner]

Do the Times back that up at all? Last I read, he wasn't in the top 1,000 in China.

[Daweii]

2 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

He's dodgy ain't he? 

I doubt it but the more people seem to convince themselves of the fact he is without any solid evidence to prove otherwise then I guess he's as guilty as it gets.. 

[Vive_La_Villa]

Just now, Daweii said:

I doubt it but the more people seem to convince themselves of the fact he is without any solid evidence to prove otherwise then I guess he's as guilty as it gets.. 

Even if he is dodgy I still love him because he isn't Lerner.

[Vive_La_Villa]

4 minutes ago, CarewsEyebrowDesigner said:

Do the Times back that up at all? Last I read, he wasn't in the top 1,000 in China.

In a population of over a billion you could be way down the pecking order and still considered one of the richest men in China.

[R1chuk]

24 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

He's dodgy ain't he? 

Is he any different ti Abramovic?

[Daweii]

13 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

In a population of over a billion you could be way down the pecking order and still considered one of the richest men in China.

Not to mention as Xia has stated already a lot of his wealth is in businesses. He stated when he mentioned that he sold Teamax for £430 million that he had plenty more businesses that could sell for similar or more money. If he's merely rationing out his spending money through businesses then he could easily be worth several billion dollars if he sold them all. I don't think having all your money in property and business gets you on these richest lists as they only care about personal wealth.

[allani]

2 hours ago, MikeMcKenna said:

Have you ever known someone go to so much trouble to persuade the press that he has the money and outline a deal in such detail? All he has to do is persuade the PL and League to pass the "fit and proper" tests.

The other option is that he has followed our recent history and realised that one of the issues (but not the only!) was Lerner's unwillingness to talk to either the fans or the press - and that this is something that he feels that he needs to address?

Either way I think he is stuck between a rock and a hard place.  Give the information and be "guilty" of trying too hard.  Don't give the information and be "guilty" of being a shadowy figure.

It feels to me that this was more about opening communications and addressing some of the initial concerns that proving one specific point (just so happened that the point he was being specifically asked about was about no-one knowing whether he had any money).  As you say all he needs to do is pass the "fit and proper" tests - so this feels more like something he wanted to do.

If he doesn't have the cash - then surely presenting "data" to more people than he strictly needs to is more likely to result in someone finding a problem with the data and pointing it out to everyone else (and most importantly to those that do matter and could block the deal)?

[Vive_La_Villa]

13 minutes ago, R1chuk said:

Is he any different ti Abramovic?

I don't think he is one of the richest men in the world.

[MikeMcKenna]

50 minutes ago, GeneralJazzman said:

Shame it gets to the point where people close to him are debunking the rumours and I need a subscription.....doh!

 

 

Don't think the article says much that is new. Other than claiming Lerner still owns Cleveland Browns!?! Poor research by the journo!

Lerner’s big score if Villa are promoted

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/business/lerners-big-score-if-villa-are-promoted-pv6wqlhll

Randy Lerner, the American sports tycoon who is selling Aston Villa to one of China’s richest men, is in line for a payout worth tens of millions should the club bounce back to the Premier League. The deal is already shrouded in controversy due to how little is known about the buyer of the club, which has just been relegated to the Football League.

Tony Xia is facing allegations that he has overstated the size of his Recon Group empire and exaggerated his academic record to claim a doctorate, something he denies.
Sources close to Mr Xia say both allegations are entirely due to media mis-reporting and culture clashes. “He was taken surprise by real journalists,” said one football source. “Once they get him in front of people, he will be fine.” The takeover has been badged as a £65 million deal for Villa — once one of the top teams in Britain with a proud, if fading, history.

The Times has learnt that the real price is £75 million, including debt, with further tens of millions to go to Mr Lerner — a 54 year old with a fortune of more than $1 billion who owns the Cleveland Browns, an American football club — assuming that Villa win promotion back to the Premier League. Mr Xia is in the unusual position of facing dual investigations into whether he is a fit and proper person to own a UK football club. The Premier League, in which Villa owns a “golden share” until it is formally relegated at the League’s annual meeting next month, is investigating alongside The Football League, which Villa will play in next year.

This is the only time a big money takeover of a Premier League club has occurred while it was known that the team would be relegated, according to football fans in the City of London. “They were down when they signed the deal,” said one expert. Reports have suggested that Mr Xia’s conglomerate controls just one listed company on the Shanghai Stock Exchange — not five, as Aston Villa claimed.

Sources say that Mr Xia controls the other four indirectly and is in the process of buying out the other parties involved. While the Premier League would not comment on its investigations into Mr Xia, football sources say they expect the deal to be nodded through within two to three weeks, a relatively speedy process that suggests few problems are expected.

Mr Xia, a former student at Harvard University between 2001 and 2002 is said to have done an exchange at Oxford University where he visited one football match – to see Aston Villa. Sources say the Premier League has changed its approach to dealing with takeovers, delaying the start of its due diligence procedures. It is said to have grown tired of investigating the money men behind deals that never go through, and has not asked clubs to wait until takeovers are much closer before they begin their inquiries.

“For every football deal that completes, there are 20 that don’t,” said one source.

Edited May 24, 2016 by MikeMcKenna

[GeneralJazzman]

56 minutes ago, Jareth said:

I know. I'm too tight to give murdoch any cash, someone here must have a times subscription non? anyone?

Ain't nobody got money for that. Don't wanna be feeding that hive of scum and villainy. 

[Jareth]

That all sounds quite positive, especially the bit about getting it nodded through, must be watertight. 

[Barney_avfc]

Good write up here on the current situation I think:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://avillafan.com/site/22495/panic-on-the-streets-of-birmingham/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Panic on the streets of Birmingham

 0

BY ALEX OTHON ON MAY 24, 2016GENERAL VILLA

Aston Villa everywhere fans rejoiced last week when the news broke that the club had finally been sold. Tony Xia and his Recon Group had negotiated the purchase of one of football’s grandest names for a sum of money which will eventually total approximately £100 million.

The outpouring of joy was almost tangible. The ill-fated Randy Lerner era was over. The shackles that had restricted the club for the last five years or so were finally removed. A new dawn could commence.

Our new owner went straight to work in appeasing the fans by outlining his plans: promotion as soon as possible, hopefully at the first attempt; getting Aston Villa back into the top six of the Premier League within five years; offering the new manager up to £50 million to spend this summer and being one of the top three clubs in the world within ten years.

The last objective is absolutely ridiculous of course. Nonetheless, the rest of his targets were exactly the sort of things we needed to hear as supporters starved for so long of anything to get excited about. Personally, I was quite happy just to enjoy this moment. Whether I believed it all or not, at this point in time I literally didn’t care: finally, there was something to give us a bit of hope and something to get us excited ahead of plying our trade in the Championship.

However, almost instantaneously, the celebrations on social media were infiltrated with negativity. Thoughts turned to questioning how much our new owner was worth. Was he even a billionaire? What did he actually own? Bank balances ranging from £200 million to £27 billion surfaced.

Suddenly, Villa fans in their hundreds became private investigators, digging around on the internet for any scrap of information they could find. Did Xia actually own as many companies as was stated? Who is behind the Recon Group?

I have been shocked to see the levels of effort people have been going to in an attempt to try and uncover some sort of truth about Xia. People do not even know what they are trying to uncover but are hell-bent on discovering some as yet undiscovered corruption linked to our new owner.

Many of the comments have bordered on racism and have certainly been xenophobic. I have even seen a labelling of all Chinese businesses as being corrupt and people citing Carson Yeung and Vincent Tan as examples of shady Chinese businessmen, despite them being from Hong Kong and Malaysia respectively.

Xia, in an attempt to be transparent and alleviate any fears that fans may have, has even provided a reporter with a bank statement, which shows an account with the equivalent of £430 million in it, which apparently came from the sale of a company called Teamax. Xia also went as far as to say that this was money being held in a separate account literally waiting to be spent.

Whilst this was quite the gesture from our new owner, the cynical amongst us merely took it as an invitation to snoop further and dig around on the internet for the credentials of this company. When people couldn’t find the answers they were looking for, they ran wild with the fraudster accusations ran. People even took it upon themselves to begin magnifying the statement, looking for signs of doctoring and trying to ‘prove’ that it was a fake.

Even writing this seems absolutely absurd. What have we become? I completely understand a feeling of apprehension regarding a new owner, especially an unknown such as Xia is, but it is not the job of the supporters to try and dig so vigorously in matters that they do not understand. It has become an embarrassment. Suddenly, everyone is an expert in business and finance. The fact is that nobody knows how these companies are set up. Nobody knows in whose names they may be. Business isn’t as straightforward as owning something outright under one name: there are holding companies, partner companies and subsidiaries of firms. A business can be privately owned rather than publicly listed and therefore virtually untraceable. It’s absolutely ridiculous to do a bit of googling and expect to uncover some sort of super villain empire.

A piece in ‘The Financial Times’ perhaps kicked things off with its somewhat negative look at Xia’s business interests last Thursday, which created some waves of worry. There followed a revelation that the Recon Group in fact only has one listed company under its umbrella rather than the five stated previously. ‘The Telegraph’ added to the mad mix yesterday with suggestions that Xia has fabricated his academic record and provided false information to gain a certificate for one of his companies. To me, the article serves little purpose other than to scaremonger. In fact, the basis of the allegation of a falsified academic document cannot, by the reporter’s own admission, even be verified. The article lazily ends with the comparison to Carson Yeung. It’s pretty shameful to be honest.

There seems to be a desperation to catch Xia out but there is no evidence that any wrongdoing has occurred.

 The fans supposedly made a huge impression on Xia at the last home game of the season against Newcastle United. I can only imagine what his thoughts about the claret and army would be now and he is probably even less enamoured with the English press. The man himself has already expressed that he didn’t expect such levels of attention. Why should he have done? Chinese investment in European football has occurred at Manchester City already, with a consortium owning 13% of the club. Atletico Madrid is part owned by Wang Jianlin, China’s richest man. Yet these investments have been welcomed. They are not controlling stakes, but I have not seen or heard, or been able to find, any carcass picking regarding those deals.

Xia has done nothing to warrant such negative scrutiny.

One name that has come into play which does create cause for concern. Chris Samuelson was previously at Reading and involved in an unsavoury period in the Royals’ recent history during Anton Zingarevich’s ownership of the club. By all accounts, Samuelson was on the board during a perilous and somewhat dodgy stint which left Reading Football Club in serious financial trouble. Accusations range from being responsible for bringing in Zingarevich in the first place to trying, when the Russian disappeared, to broker new takeover deals that involved agreements which would see him remain on the board. Rumours also suggest that his Switzerland-based company, Mutal Trust International, would also receive a monthly £40,000 windfall on a consultancy basis.

Reading fans have nothing positive to say about him and the words ‘crook’, ‘conman’ and ‘snake’ appear frequently in posts involving his name. It’s a big worry.

Fans are absolutely correct to question the wisdom of allowing people such as Samuelson, with such chequered histories, into the club. I am concerned about his involvement, certainly. The reality, however, is that there was always a real risk of someone involved in this deal having a past which was either unsuccessful or questionable. The business world is full of people of this nature. Indeed, it can be argued it is the very nature of business itself. Obviously if we had a choice then we wouldn’t risk a guy with a dubious reputation being on the board. But we don’t have a choice. It isn’t a democracy. Trying to expose people like we’re Roger Cooks (kids, ask your parents…) serves little purpose.

For Xia, the mere fact that he is unknown is not cause for the reactions that we have seen over the last six days. The man has been seemingly open so far, admitting that one of his firms, Lotus Health Group, is currently loss making, another point which many fans made a big deal out of. There is a sense of our fans never being happy. As a friend of mine said, we now have more dough than Hovis. Until something begins to go wrong or there is a reason to show cause for concern over our new owner then let’s try to be positive and enjoy the thought of Xia spending a lot of money this summer without having to sell a bunch of players first, financial fair play allowing.

There is an element of the unknown and there are no guarantees that any new owner will do his best by the club but we must remember that owners and investors can only make money if Aston Villa is a successful club. We need to realise that Aston Villa may simply be a vehicle to make money for the new man. Success in cups and the leagues will merely be a by-product of that. That’s modern football, unfortunately. After such a depressing season and desperate longing for new, mega-rich owners for several years, we should just see what happens first before we wallow in any further negativity.

Edited May 24, 2016 by Barney_avfc

[The Fun Factory]

I think like the Times article touched on regardless of if Dr Tony has or hasn't loads of cash, it would be bad PR for Chinese soft diplomacy if this was a disaster takeover. It in their benefit to been seen as successful in a high profile western sporting/entertainment project.

[Qwpzxjor1]

You try telling the Chinese we don't trust them.

After that, go and tell Putin he walks like a girl.

Fit and proper test thingy would have to uncover a huge flaw, not just 'we're not totally sure where all your money comes from'. It's going to be tricky, they could just use the Cameron line of 'of course we can't point to every source of every bit of money..' In fact, I hope they do.

[flamingsombrero]

I was right on board with that "panic" article until the part about enjoying the thought of not having to sell a bunch of players