Popular Post Jareth Posted May 22, 2016 VT Supporter Popular Post Share Posted May 22, 2016 1 minute ago, YGabbana said: Think they want Lerner back mate with McLeish in charge and no budget. I don;t know about you guys, but I'm so blumin concerned about this whole thing I'm gonna write an email to the football league, something must be done. Now what was the email address again... 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVTuco Posted May 22, 2016 VT Supporter Share Posted May 22, 2016 1 hour ago, villarocker said: The maths in that article don't add up. He paid £52m up front and agreed to pay off the overdraft of £24.5m. That equals £76.5m so why only ring-fence £74m? A theme park in Aston, really? Where exactly? He must be planning to buy Aston Park from the council. With the surrounding area in such a state he will do well to promote that as a tourist attraction. I really hope that this fella is trustworthy and is successful in his ownership of Villa but I do worry that he's just another dreamer like Lerner who will quickly lose interest in the club. Hollis probably did the numbers for him.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lp_villa830 Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 1 hour ago, villarocker said: The maths in that article don't add up. He paid £52m up front and agreed to pay off the overdraft of £24.5m. That equals £76.5m so why only ring-fence £74m? Maybe he had to put a £2.5m deposit down. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post dudevillaisnice Posted May 22, 2016 Popular Post Share Posted May 22, 2016 What we need is yet another interview by yet another reporter asking yet more questions specifically about that other £2.5m ..... Right? 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam3773 Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 Seeing that 'proof of funds' makes me feel like I belong to a batshit crazy Republican Party who just asked to see Obama's birth certificate. [emoji17] Sorry, Doc'. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob182 Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 The maths in that article don't add up. He paid £52m up front and agreed to pay off the overdraft of £24.5m. That equals £76.5m so why only ring-fence £74m? A theme park in Aston, really? Where exactly? He must be planning to buy Aston Park from the council. With the surrounding area in such a state he will do well to promote that as a tourist attraction. I really hope that this fella is trustworthy and is successful in his ownership of Villa but I do worry that he's just another dreamer like Lerner who will quickly lose interest in the club. The difference between Xia and Lerner when it comes to 'dreaming', is that Xia has prior experience and expertise that he is clearly looking to rely on. Lerner's previous 'expertise', if you can call it that, was in controlling a company his father left him and owning an underperforming American football team. Xia's talk of tourist attraction/ renovating surrounding areas is something he has a huge amount of experience in, and that presumably comes with knowing how and where to get the funds to do it. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAMAICAN-VILLAN Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 (edited) 12 minutes ago, Sam3773 said: Seeing that 'proof of funds' makes me feel like I belong to a batshit crazy Republican Party who just asked to see Obama's birth certificate. Sorry, Doc'. He is actually Filipino. "I guarantee it" Edited May 22, 2016 by JAMAICAN-VILLAN 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post PompeyVillan Posted May 22, 2016 Popular Post Share Posted May 22, 2016 Think they want Lerner back mate with McLeish in charge and no budget. Yeah, bang on. Except nobody has said that. PFE. I find it odd that you see it as others "trying to spoil your fun" by offering their opinion in Xia and this takeover. There have been concerns about Xias intentions, his funding, his plans and his background. I think it's healthy for fans to scrutinise this as much as they see fit. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob182 Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 The full Mail article, for anyone who hasn't clicked on the link. Saviour or dreamer? Sportsmail talks to Aston Villa’s owner-in-waiting, Dr Tony Xia By Nick Harris for The Mail on Sunday 00:15 22 May 2016, updated 07:45 22 May 2016 Businessman Tony Xia is set to buy Aston Villa for a 'bargain' £74.5m Sportsmail's Nick Harris spoke to the billionaire in his Beijing home - He says it's a big deal for fans but small compared to his £3.5bn US swoop - Xia revealed how he became acquainted with China’s president, Xi Jinping - billionaire admits Villa are not the sole object of his footballing affections - His plan is to make the Aston area home to a football theme park - Villa’s academy will find and nurture the best young talent in China Tony Xia, Aston Villa’s owner-in-waiting, chuckles when asked if he is a dollar billionaire. ‘I think it’s rather more than that,’ says the 39-year-old Chinese businessman, explaining that just a few months ago he sold one of his companies, Teamax, for £430million, which is sitting in a bank account waiting to be spent, in part on Villa. ‘I own quite a lot of private businesses and I think I can sell some of them for the same amount or more,’ adds Xia, who has provided The Mail on Sunday with a bank transfer certificate purporting to show the funds from the Teamex deal. Speaking from his home in Beijing on Saturday in an hour-long exclusive interview, he revealed not just the financial nuts and bolts of the deal that could put him in control at Villa Park within weeks but much more about his plans for the club. ‘If’, for the moment, is the key word in the phrase ‘if his plans come to fruition’. Xia was happy to talk about his past, his private life, his business career and his finances. Within weeks he will need to prove, beyond doubt and with hard cash, that he has the assets and ability to buy Villa and fund it. Initial checks corroborate some of the information. But the reality is that China has an opaque business environment and a chaotically expanding economy. In the short time since Xia hit the headlines, it is impossible to verify everything about him. Even his birth-date has been questioned. Xia, whose full name is Xia Jiantong, says he was born on October 26, 1976, and that the confusion arose because he started school as a precocious four-year-old whose parents needed for legal reasons to pretend he was six. What is fact, and The Mail on Sunday has verified, is that he studied landscape design at Harvard University in the late 1990s, started a design company, XWHO, in Boston, Massachusetts in March 1999, co-owned by his girlfriend at the time Cong Liu and one of his lecturers, Prof Charles Harris. Picture comment: Xia presented us with this bank statement with a balance of £4.1bn yuan to prove his wealth ahead of the deal Registries in the USA and China show the company relocated to Hangzhou in the eastern province of Zhejiang, where Xia also started Teamex, a planning company that has provided services as hundreds of new cities have been built. Firms operating across IT, health, transport, design, tourism and finance were added. Xia’s business empire exists under an umbrella organisation called the RECON Group but most of the subsidiaries are privately held, not stockmarket listed. The most visible, Lotus, has been loss-making but Xia is open about this and says it is turning around. He insists that within a few months a series of major mergers and acquisitions will bring a bigger chunk of his business into the public domain. ‘I would rather keep a low profile,’ he says. It is pointed out that buying a football club just relegated from the Premier League is not a clever way to do that. ‘Actually you’re right,’ he laughs. ‘There’s been more attention than I’d expect or could predict. I knew people would pay attention, but not this much.’ Picture comment: Within weeks he will need to prove, beyond doubt and with hard cash, he has the assets to buy Villa and fund it. Scrutiny, he is finding out, comes as part of the package and he discloses what he will pay for Villa. Lerner, the American owner, wanted more than £100m but Xia says he has settled for £52m up front, plus Xia’s guarantee of clearing Villa’s overdraft at HSBC of £24.5m. Xia says that £74.5m is thus sitting in a ring-fenced bank account. Lerner will earn a £30m bonus if Villa return to the Premier League within three years and another £10m if they stay there for another three years after promotion. ‘I appreciate it’s a big deal for Villa fans,’ he says. ‘But actually in pure business terms, I’m working on acquisitions much bigger than this.’ He says, for example, that within months he will complete a $3.5bn takeover of a US logistics firm. If true, Villa fans could well have got themselves an owner if not quite as rich as Roman Abramovich then certainly extremely wealthy. Whether he, like them, is a lifelong supporter, is less clear. Xia spent five months on an exchange at Trinity College, Oxford, in 1998-99 and saw one Villa home game during that time. He says he cannot remember who they played, or the score. This hardly smacks of an awestruck devotee. He insists he has kept an eye on Villa’s fortunes since but admits he also has a soft spot for Arsenal and is rather more convincing waxing lyrical on Dennis Bergkamp and Thierry Henry. ‘I can assure you my first and only football priority from now will be Aston Villa though,’ he says. Xia says he has offered the manager’s job to one of three candidates in the public domain but won’t confirm which of Roberto Di Matteo, Nigel Pearson or David Moyes it is. ‘When the manager is appointed, we will discuss his budget,’ Xia adds. It is expected between £20m and £50m will be available for transfers, depending on the case made by whoever gets the job. The long-term plan include a football museum and theme park to attract football tourists from China and India, and the recruitment of young Chinese players to Villa’s academy, if not as formal scholars then on exchange programmes. Picture comment: Roberto Di Matteo, pictured during his spell with Schalke in 2015, is the new owner's leading managerial target Picture comment: Former Manchester United manager David Moyes remains a possibility, with Xia keen to take his time Xia says he will spend a lot of time in Birmingham over the next year, buying a house for himself and his wife Sally and daughter Charlotte, who turns two this summer. He says buying a club has been a long-term aim. He has played football since college; Harvard records show him in the university league. He says love of the sport and a desire to diversify his business interests are his main driver, although the knowledge that China’s president, Xi Jinping, wants China to become a footballing superpower, is not lost on him. He has known the president for some time, albeit not closely. Xi was the most senior government official in Zhejiang Province when Xia relocated there to the same industrial park as Jack Ma, China’s richest man in recent years. President Xi visited both men’s companies when they were still on the up. Xia dreams he might be tempted to Villa Park too. For now, that remains a dream, just as Xia knows his plans for Villa remain a dream in the eyes of many. He still has everything to prove. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob182 Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 Yeah, bang on. Except nobody has said that. PFE. I find it odd that you see it as others "trying to spoil your fun" by offering their opinion in Xia and this takeover. There have been concerns about Xias intentions, his funding, his plans and his background. I think it's healthy for fans to scrutinise this as much as they see fit. To the point that Samuelson has been referred to as a financial terrorist, even though we don't know what involvement, if any, he will have? As well as questioning Xia's finances when the Mail referred to £74m being in a ring-fenced account instead of £76m? I get what your saying PV. Some people are just being cautious. But other people do appear to have already made their minds up that this deal is going sour, even though the evidence that we have available really doesn't point to that yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jareth Posted May 22, 2016 VT Supporter Share Posted May 22, 2016 (edited) On 5/20/2016 at 14:07, ramshackler said: Is it too early to say 'I told you so'?! So after the snippets yesterday about him exaggerating/ lying about his academic qualifications. He has now lied about his business qualifications. His only company made a profit of 27 million in 2014 and a loss of 500 million in 2015. When did Dr Tony become president of company? 2015 according to the HKSE... Jesus Christ will people wake up now I admit hindsight is a wonderful thing, but couldn't resist reposting this purely for its sheer drama Edit - but to be fair, I think we all know why this reaction happened, it has been a long hard miserable few years, so hopefully no hard feelings to the drama queens. Edited May 22, 2016 by Jareth 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAMAICAN-VILLAN Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 5 minutes ago, Jareth said: I admit hindsight is a wonderful thing, but couldn't resist reposting this purely for its sheer drama Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villan-scott Posted May 22, 2016 VT Supporter Share Posted May 22, 2016 Show me the money! No doubt the bank statement is a fake... maybe not! The article is very reassuring and as if he has moved to ease fans fears. Good work Dr X. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tubby Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 The missing £2.5m... That's money laundering for you! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Phumfeinz Posted May 22, 2016 Popular Post Share Posted May 22, 2016 (edited) Maybe, just maybe, the 74.5m is merely a typo and not actually an indication that Tony Xia is worse than Hitler and is going to destroy Aston Villa and the Aston area for disgusting self-gain. **** me this forum is hilarious Edited May 22, 2016 by Phumfeinz 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaJ100 Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 With regards to building a popular leisure facility in a crap area, see Star City Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briny_ear Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 My main concern at the moment is his plan to turn Aston into a "theme park". Do you think he has ever seen Aston? When this plan falls to pieces will he lose interest in the club? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
It's Your Round Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 4 minutes ago, VillaJ100 said: With regards to building a popular leisure facility in a crap area, see Star City Plus there's already a circus and freak show over at the sty. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Djemba_Villan Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 Optimism high again. whatever happens the next 2-3 years. I'm sure it'll be a roller coaster. Sit tight! my baggies supporting mate has been attempting to 'take the pi55' all week but has come unstuck given most of us villa fans are finding all of this as hilarious as them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lichfield Dean Posted May 22, 2016 VT Supporter Share Posted May 22, 2016 A theme park right off the best known junction of the country's main arterial motorway bang in the middle of the country at the football club where the league's was formed and just down the road from a successful entertainment complex. I reckon it would work and could hopefully finally help to spark some regeneration in the area. As long as it isn't really really naff... I like what Tony says in that article. I hope it isn't all just spin. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts