🇨🇳 The Chinese Are Coming

Southampton Football Club
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"Southampton look set to become the second Premier League club to pass into Chinese ownership after receiving an improved offer from Lander Sports Development to buy a 100 per cent stake in the club for £190 million. The Chinese property development company has proposed a phased takeover in which it would initially buy into the club before going on to take full control.

Katharina Liebherr, the club’s owner, rejected an offer of £180 million in January, as revealed by The Times, but Lander’s improved bid is much closer to her valuation and negotiations are believed to be at an advanced stage. The sale is being handled by the Zurich office of the investment bank UBS, which has been retained by Liebherr since she inherited Southampton after the death of her father, Markus, in 2010.

Liebherr intends to keep some of her shares in the short term to provide continuity before selling up completely if Lander’s promises of additional investment materialise and the buy-out goes well. Lander and Southampton have been talking for more than a year, although a six-week period of exclusive negotiations ended in January without an agreement.

Lander appears to be happy for Liebherr to stay on as a minority shareholder and is not planning any significant changes at the club if it secures a majority stake. The chairman, Ralph Krueger, and chief executive, Gareth Rogers, are likely to remain in place, although Lander will seek representation on the board.

Liebherr’s willingness to sell stems from her belief that Southampton require additional investment to cement their position as a top-ten Premier League club and a desire to spread her assets across a wider portfolio. The Liebherrs’ wealth was reported to be £3 billion after Markus’s death, although that figure is understood to have referred to the entire family’s assets rather than the trust that Katharina inherited.

Southampton posted healthy financial results for the year ending 2015-16 last week, with post-tax profits of £4.9 million and an increased turnover of £124.3 million, although the club retains debts of almost £50 million, a factor that is believed to have played a part in the protracted negotiations.

Lander is seeking to become the second Chinese owner in the Premier League after Guochuan Lai’s takeover of West Bromwich Albion last year."

seens a bit low given their previous bid was £180m for part ownership…

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Wow, given that figures in excess of £200m were being bandied about at the beginning of the year that does seem low…

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Katharina taking £190m and remaining as a minority shareholder looks like a good deal for her.

I’m surprised that Cortese hasn’t showed his hand yet as he was always banging on about how many investors he had knocking his door down.

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Still cant work out what is in it for a company such as Lander.

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Yeah. Dr. Tony at the Villa seems to be in the game of losing a stack of money just for the lols, but that don’t seem to be the game here.

I suppose the 5 yr plan is prob:

Day 1: Sell all players, I mean fkn everyone, first team, youth bros etc, collect £150m.

Year 1: Play fans in Premier League, get relegated, collect £100m.

Year 2: Play fans in Championship, get relegated, collect £40m

Year 3: Play fans in League 1, get relegated, collect £33m

Year 4: Play fans in League 2, get relegated, collect £14m

Year 5: Sell non-league club to some other mug, collect £10m.

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This is genius

I am throwing my hat into the ring - I will pay £200m

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That is harsh.

Looking at the quality of some of the players who took us down the league pyramid last time I reckon a fan team might keep us up in League One.

#believe

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I was talking about Southampton not Pompy

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I did think Krugar was going to get some of his Davos contacts to buy the club.

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I fucking hope not - we’d all be exterminated.

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What’s £10 million when you are talking £180 million or £190 million. On the grand scheme of things it is not much of an improved offer. It’s like me saying I will give you £1.80 for that sandwich… no… ok £1.90? Deal brilliant!

Property developer you save, on the river front? Sorry, was thinking out a loud!

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Being sensible about it if the club wishes to progress as I am sure they do then the money invested wisely will achieve that.

Firstly they can keep their key players by giving them improved contracts.

Secondly they can strengthen the squad with quality signings.

Thirdly they can upgrade SMS.

This plus all the extra cash sloshing around the premium now the days of being a selling club are gone.

They only need to sell the players who are no !Longer required or are not good enough.

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Not with my groin!

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I’m sorry that your groin can’t keep us up.

You’ve obviously had more beer than any of us realised.

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Pretty sure there’s a pill to help with that now…

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Really? Does it change one’s taste in shirts then?

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Maybe we need to wean Bletch of the LSD then

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Seriously though, isn’t it a case of UK Plc selling off more of the family silver?

Oh, we already did that selling to the Liebherr’s…

:lou_facepalm_2:

:lou_wink_2:

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Sure, some new investment into the club would be great but don’t start getting too excited that this is going to be a big game changer, if it happens.

Now I’m far from being an expert on global financial affairs but I do know that the Chinese don’t invest in foreign businesses on a whim or for the kudos. They’ve not got the kind of wealth that they can throw limitless pots of cash at a football team to impress their mates, like the oil rich arabs and russians can. There will be no blank cheques turning up in Les Reeds mail box.

I’m not saying that a Lander takeover is a good or a bad thing. We don’t know anything about them.

Reportedly, Kat’s done her due dilligence checks and it seems she’s happy that they’re not a bunch of shysters and they’ll do right by us. Obviously she stands to make a pretty penny out of any deal but personally, I believe that her fathers legacy is as important to her and trust her not to sell us down the river.

I’d be surprised if there was massive overnight changes though. I think that slow steady growth will remain the order of the day. I’m sure they’ll be some investment into the club but I suspect that’ll be more into developing other revenue streams and the commercial side of the business, rather than chucking shitloads at the first team. We’ll become part of Landers portfolio and their primary concern will be making money out of us … not a bad thing neccessarily as long as they don’t lose sight of the fact that we are primarily a football club and success on the pitch is fundamental to the growth of the brand.

Anyway, if you think that any of this, will suddenly stop us being a selling club you’re kidding yourself.

People really need to get their head round the fact that our transfer policy is not simply a money thing. The best players will always harbour ambitions to play for the elite clubs … we could offer VVD or Bertrand or whoever, £200 grand a week and it wouldn’t stop them wanting out if a champions league club came knocking … that’s just how it is and all we can do is find a way of making it work for us, something we’ve been doing quite successfully in recent years.

COYR :innocent:

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Lander sports developments(formerly Lander real estate Co) scare the shit out of me. They are out to make as much profit as quickly as possible, no more, no less.

Chinese investment in foreign countries has no regard for history or emotion(any westerner moaning about this is a hypocrite). Any news on their long term plans for the club?

I would rather their interest stayed about 6013 miles away personally, but if they really must find an area to buy up and develop, how about they Fuck off to Portsmouth and go for the cheap option.

Am i the only one that’s seriously worried about this lot?