Tony Xia (no longer involved with AVFC)

[MessiWillSignForVilla]

3 hours ago, KHV said:

We got £41 million last season as a parachute payment, this season we get about £30 million and are right on the limit of FFP. Next season our final parachute payment is only £14m so we have to shed £16m from somewhere.

Gabby and McCormack will free up around £4m which leaves another £12m to free up.

I think the danger is bigger than people think and the exodus will be larger than people think.

FFP is based over three seasons, which means next year the £80m loss we made in the 2015/16 seasons will no longer be counted towards our FFP considerations (as I believe the relevant seasons next year will be 2016-2019), which would more than make up for that £16m difference.

[Junxs]

He did say when he arrived that he would get involved in developing the area, wander what was discussed and if its to allow redevelopment of Villa Park as part of any deal?

 

 

[Daweii]

"Good to work with Birmingham City..."

Six words to make my heart skip a beat.. I am so glad the rest of what he said was about improving Birmingham and were not football related. 

Good on ya Tony. You came in and one of your wild and exuberant claims to get the fans excited was rejuvenating Birmingham and you seem to actually be pursuing that, fair play. 

[NurembergVillan]

9 hours ago, lapal_fan said:

I went into Tony's office and they are tucked away in one of those shitty "lucky cats" you can get from China.  These are his main 3 ideas (from what he told me anyway).  

The traffic cone;

Based on our locality to the roads that surround VP.  The white bits around the edges of the cones are seats.  Very striking and they will be covered in LEDs because they are quite cheap now-a-days and they are energy efficient - something close to Tony's heart (he's got a single, red LED in his heart). 

Sausages;

Tony enjoys sausages all the time.  In fact I've met him a lot and he's always sucking on a little sausage.  His idea is about rewarding sausages to the goal scorers.  Also, depending on the way Villa a playing, a DRONE (very futuristic I'm sure you'll agree) will lift the sausage to that end of the stadium.  Cumberland is Tony's fave, for those of you who are wondering.

and finally, 1970s funny people;

He'd put all his favourite 1970s comedians on top of the stands, and make them really big balloons.  When we score, Tony's current favourite balloon will blow up really tall and make the stadium feel really happy and nice for a bit.  Tony is also a big fan of Safebury's (on the Hagley Road), so he named Trinity Road after it and makes the man from the shop his PA so he can sell him sneaky sausages which are out of date, right on the cheap. 

I don't know if there are any more, I'll have to sneak back in to Tony's office because he doesn't know me and would probably consider me a threat.  

Did you have a stroke a few days ago?

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

Brilliant stuff.

Tony knows exactly WTF he is doing!

[TheAuthority]

1 hour ago, NurembergVillan said:

Did you have a stroke a few days ago?

Genuine LOL

[lapal_fan]

11 hours ago, NurembergVillan said:

Did you have a stroke a few days ago?

regularly 

[sidcow]

On 29/11/2017 at 11:57, lapal_fan said:

I went into Tony's office and they are tucked away in one of those shitty "lucky cats" you can get from China.  These are his main 3 ideas (from what he told me anyway).  

The traffic cone;

Based on our locality to the roads that surround VP.  The white bits around the edges of the cones are seats.  Very striking and they will be covered in LEDs because they are quite cheap now-a-days and they are energy efficient - something close to Tony's heart (he's got a single, red LED in his heart). 

Sausages;

Tony enjoys sausages all the time.  In fact I've met him a lot and he's always sucking on a little sausage.  His idea is about rewarding sausages to the goal scorers.  Also, depending on the way Villa a playing, a DRONE (very futuristic I'm sure you'll agree) will lift the sausage to that end of the stadium.  Cumberland is Tony's fave, for those of you who are wondering.

and finally, 1970s funny people;

He'd put all his favourite 1970s comedians on top of the stands, and make them really big balloons.  When we score, Tony's current favourite balloon will blow up really tall and make the stadium feel really happy and nice for a bit.  Tony is also a big fan of Safebury's (on the Hagley Road), so he named Trinity Road after it and makes the man from the shop his PA so he can sell him sneaky sausages which are out of date, right on the cheap. 

I don't know if there are any more, I'll have to sneak back in to Tony's office because he doesn't know me and would probably consider me a threat.  

Shocked and saddened by your school boy error there LF. 

Little and Large are his favourite 80s comedians, not around in the 70s.  Shame on you. 

I think we should all take some time out to think about what happened here people. 

[carewjust4u]

Whenever I look at how Sunderland are doing at the moment, I always think "thank the lord for Tony Xia".

[Demitri_C]

Just noticed this

Click

Quote

 

What is the net worth of Wolves boss Guo Guangchang and Fosun International?

His Fosun International Group has invested heavily in the Molineux club since the takeover in July

The new man who has taken over Wolves has been named the richest in the West Midlands.

Guo Guangchang’s Fosun International Group has invested heavily in the Molineux club since the takeover in 2016 -.

But the Birmingham Post Rich List revealed in January the entrepreneur has the deepest pockets in the region, with a fortune of no less than £4.8 bilion.

He has made his money investing in healthcare, fashion, tourism and property in the Far East.

Fosun owns household names like Thomas Cook, Club Med and Cirque de Soleil.

Guo Guangchang, the new owner of Wolves

After the takeover of Wolves, Fosun promised to invest between £20 million and £30 million over the next two years to get the club promoted into the Premier League as soon as possible.

Rich List editor Ian Strachan said: “When the Chinese government began to encourage business enterprise, [Guangchang] and four university friends set up their own company in 1992. It began by advising foreign companies trying to set up in the rapidly-growing Chinese economy.

“The business grew into a huge conglomerate, becoming the biggest non-state owned enterprise in China. He is married to Shanghai television presenter Wang Jinyuan.

“Fosun continues to be successful with revenues of £3.7 billion in the first half of the year and profits of £502 million. Almost half of its income comes from large insurance businesses in China, the USA and Portugal. The business is expanding into Brazil, Russia and India.”

The Chinese investment drive in West Midlands football has added billions to this year’s Rich List, which ranks the 50 wealthiest people in the region, including those who live elsewhere but are major investors.

West Brom owner Guochuan Lai makes it to third on the list, with a fortune of £2.8 billion, while Aston Villa chairman Tony Xia has a fortune just shy of £1 billion.

Paul Suen Cho Hung, the new top man at Birmingham City, is worth £440 million.

 

Despite the wealth its not always about money as we found out under Lerner. if you employ rubbish people and utilise the money poorly without a proper plan in place you get nowhere.

I am very happy with Xia in the helm as he may not be as weather as West Brom and Wolves owners but I do believe he has massive plans to make us successful should we go up. With his redevelopment background I think that is a massive thing to have. 

[richp999]

You have to be a bit careful with these reports.. . Fosun owns about 10% shares in Thomas Cook, not all of it. With a value of around 1 billion does it reduce fosun's net worth down by £900 million? There may be other companies listed that they don't own 100% of. 

In any case it doesn't matter at all how much any of the owners are worth, it matters how much of that worth they are prepared to blow on a football club. 

Learner was worth a fortune but was unwilling to spend hardly any of it on the club. 

 

 

[Demitri_C]

31 minutes ago, richp999 said:

You have to be a bit careful with these reports.. . Fosun owns about 10% shares in Thomas Cook, not all of it. With a value of around 1 billion does it reduce fosun's net worth down by £900 million? There may be other companies listed that they don't own 100% of. 

In any case it doesn't matter at all how much any of the owners are worth, it matters how much of that worth they are prepared to blow on a football club. 

Learner was worth a fortune but was unwilling to spend hardly any of it on the club. 

 

 

Very good and valid points mate. Short at sunderland has some cash too and wont spend. The thing is even if you have wealthy owners you need tl spend something like 100m+ to challenge for the top teams. Who is going to invest that sort of money these days?

[Daweii]

Not to mention personal wealth and usable wealth tied up in businesses is another thing. We have heard already that Recon have their fingers in dozens and dozens of pies and there is likely a lot of money being generated there that isn't necessarily going to Xia, but is technically his money. I don't know how much of his own personal wealth he'll actually be spending as Recon could likely foot the bill for a lot of it. The inner workings of Xia and how he's financing Villa in the present and future is likely deliberately complicated. All I know is he keeps pressing stadium upgrade plans and training ground upgrade plans so he's got money regardless where it's coming from. 

[AntrimBlack]

1 hour ago, richp999 said:

You have to be a bit careful with these reports.. . Fosun owns about 10% shares in Thomas Cook, not all of it. With a value of around 1 billion does it reduce fosun's net worth down by £900 million? There may be other companies listed that they don't own 100% of. 

In any case it doesn't matter at all how much any of the owners are worth, it matters how much of that worth they are prepared to blow on a football club. 

Learner was worth a fortune but was unwilling to spend hardly any of it on the club. 

 

 

Unfair. He spent and lost a lot of money on the club.

[briny_ear]

9 minutes ago, AntrimBlack said:

Unfair. He spent and lost a lot of money on the club.

Or, more accurately (and unkindly) he spent a lot in an idiot sort of way, then his mummy told him off for spending too much and so he stopped spending.

[richp999]

2 hours ago, AntrimBlack said:

Unfair. He spent and lost a lot of money on the club.

I didn't say he didn't spend anything on the club.

My point was is doesn't matter how much an owner is worth, it matters how much they spend on a club.

From a quick look through companies house, this is what happened over lerner's reign:

		Paid(M)	Operating Loss(M)	Running Loss	Overdraft(M)		Net Debt (M)
Aug-06	Lerner	62.6					17.2	On Acquisition
May-07			2.8	2.8			63.2
May-08			7.8	10.6			72.3
May-09			46.2	56.8			85.16
May-10			37.5	94.3			109.54
May-11			53.9	148.2			113.74
May-12			17.6	165.8			121.528
May-13			51.7	217.5			189.498
May-14			3.9	221.4			102.02	90m loan note
May-15			27.3	248.7			30.6	84m borrowings to cash
May-16			80.6	329.3
Total			329.3

 

So he brought it for 62.6 M, and sold it to Xia for 52M. (Plus 25M if we get promoted within 3 years - might still get that - hopefully !)

Also Xia added £60m to the operating costs, which is probably what we spent on players when he arrived.

Xia also paid 24M to the overdraft account, which probably took care of the outstanding debt at the time.

So far then, it looks like lerner lost £10M on the pure purchase/sale (may turn into a 15M profit if we get promoted).

The real cost is what he had to pay to prop up the finances over the 10 years he was here.

Most of the losses are added to the debt. Its very hard to work out where the money is shifted , but it seems in May 14, 90M is 'loaned' to the club. 

The next year the 'loan' is converted to cash, probably by lerner as he was preparing to sell the club. So he effectively spent this money.

So he may have paid in 90m in 2014, then another 84m in 2015, or this may be the same transaction, at first a loan, then effectively written off.

 

So a naïve summary of the accounts you might say the club lost £329 M over his tenure, left £13M more in debt so it cost him around £313M , plus the £10M he may lose on the purchase/sale.

So he maybe spent around £323M. Or it might be £174M. or £84M. 

Which yes, is not a trivial amount of money whichever it is, but he is worth around £1000M , so its up to you to decide whether or not its a large enough percentage of his net worth to get worried about.

If I have £100 in my wallet and put £30 on a bet, and lose, I'm not too bothered.  If I put £90 on the bet and lose, I'll be mortified.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ender4]

1 hour ago, richp999 said:

 

If I have £100 in my wallet and put £30 on a bet, and lose, I'm not too bothered.  If I put £90 on the bet and lose, I'll be mortified.

Agree with the rest of your post, so haven't quoted that.

but its not like your example here.... its like if you are worth £100 in total if you sold all your assets and added up everything you owned... and then you put £30 of your total worth onto a horse and lost. 

[richp999]

1 hour ago, ender4 said:

Agree with the rest of your post, so haven't quoted that.

but its not like your example here.... its like if you are worth £100 in total if you sold all your assets and added up everything you owned... and then you put £30 of your total worth onto a horse and lost. 

Yeah fair enough , you are spot on.

The original post was really just saying it doesn't matter how much football club's owners are worth, it just matters how much they will spend on it, the two aren't the same.

Although I do think that regarding the example above, once you accumulate a certain amount of wealth, you can afford to lose whatever you have above that level.

So if Randy had £1000Million and lost 95% of it, i.e. £950Million, he's still going to be pretty comfortable on the remaining £50Mill. He's not going to the food bank.

If your' net worth is £50,000 and you lose 95%, or £47,500, you've got £2500 left and are in the shite.

It's a side issue though ; the main point was that we won't know what Xia will be willing to thow at the club probably until (if) we get promoted.

Then we'll find out.

One interesting thing that comes from looking at the accounts is the monumental amount of money the club looses, not just in player wages , but the tens of millions they spend on the hundreds of people they have working at the club. I mean , why do you need so many people to run a football club - what do they all do ?

Its impossible to know every player's individual contract, buy say we had on average 30 senior players on 30,000 a week, that would tot up to around £46.8 Million.

The club spends around £90Million a year on salary's (including everyone) .. Where does all that go ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ender4]

41 minutes ago, richp999 said:

 

, but the tens of millions they spend on the hundreds of people they have working at the club. I mean , why do you need so many people to run a football club - what do they all do ?

The club spends around £90Million a year on salary's (including everyone) .. Where does all that go ?

 

I remember this conversation on VT many years ago when Villa and Spurs were competing for the top 6. 

Spurs used to outsource a lot of their staff, so they paid less in wages and more in overheards... whereas Villa kept staffing internal so spent a good £10 million more, but had lower overheads.

Basically catering staff, ground staff, stewards, finance staff, legal staff, coaches, admin staff, and so on.

Villa are a £100 million business, and like any business of that size, a lot of staff are needed in the background. 

Look at the K-mac thread and the team of safeguarding staff for the academy.  Thats just a random example of staff you would never think about. 

Edited December 8, 2017 by ender4

[Vive_La_Villa]

1 hour ago, richp999 said:

Yeah fair enough , you are spot on.

The original post was really just saying it doesn't matter how much football club's owners are worth, it just matters how much they will spend on it, the two aren't the same.

Although I do think that regarding the example above, once you accumulate a certain amount of wealth, you can afford to lose whatever you have above that level.

So if Randy had £1000Million and lost 95% of it, i.e. £950Million, he's still going to be pretty comfortable on the remaining £50Mill. He's not going to the food bank.

If your' net worth is £50,000 and you lose 95%, or £47,500, you've got £2500 left and are in the shite.

It's a side issue though ; the main point was that we won't know what Xia will be willing to thow at the club probably until (if) we get promoted.

Then we'll find out.

One interesting thing that comes from looking at the accounts is the monumental amount of money the club looses, not just in player wages , but the tens of millions they spend on the hundreds of people they have working at the club. I mean , why do you need so many people to run a football club - what do they all do ?

Its impossible to know every player's individual contract, buy say we had on average 30 senior players on 30,000 a week, that would tot up to around £46.8 Million.

The club spends around £90Million a year on salary's (including everyone) .. Where does all that go ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Wyness's of this world.