I know this is in Saints Stuff, but feels like this deserves a new thread. Especially as it’s presumably likely to run and run... https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/southampton-put-up-for-sale-at-250m-3d57h22zs
As said in the other thread I don't see many buyers at that price as it hardly represents value, better off spending 200m less on a championship club. And if anyone could c&p then that would be appreciated.
On the face of it good news. But as positive as I am as a person, I always think be careful what you wish for.
Good news: Gao is looking to get out Bad news: The asking price is too high and this will surely stunt us further in the short-medium term.
Hopefully the asking price is just that - asking price and a start for negotiations. Is £250m a lot for a Premier League club with our facilities though?
Its a lot for a 80% share I think .......but I wonder if the other parties who were interested before come back to the table.
80% of a club for £250M......no thanks. That's like buying a posh apartment on the riverfront with a leasehold. Sod that.
Anyway, are we starting a whip-round, or what? I’ve got a £50 M&S voucher I haven’t used yet, happy to throw that in, along with 15% of my winnings from Cheltenham next week.
Southampton Football Club have been made available for sale less than three years after the Chinese businessman Gao Jisheng purchased a controlling stake in the Premier League club. The Sunday Times understands that more than one broker has been invited to source a buyer for Southampton at an asking price of about £250 million. Achieving an enterprise value of around that level would allow Gao to leave English football at a sum similar to the amount the previous owner — Katharina Liebherr, who inherited the club from her late father — received for 80 per cent of Southampton’s shares in August 2017. Since Gao’s takeover the club have been repeatedly endangered by relegation, finishing 17th in 2017-18, and 16th last season. They are now seven points above the drop zone after yesterday’s 1-0 home loss to Newcastle United. Gao has employed three managers — Mauricio Pellegrino, Mark Hughes and Ralph Hasenhüttl — two chief executives and seen Les Reed, an individual involved in generating significant profits from the transfer market, leave in a November 2018 move that Southampton said was designed to “provide new drive and direction to our football operations team and enable them to get results back on track”. The club is yet to report financial results for the 2018-19 season but sources involved in finding a purchaser for Southampton expect these to be considerably less healthy than the £28.6 million profit declared last March. The club would have made a significant loss in 2017-18 had it not been for Virgil van Dijk’s record £75 million sale to Liverpool, while the ratio of wage to turnover rose to 74 per cent. In the period since, Southampton have operated inefficiently in the transfer market and presently have a number of high-cost signings, such as Guido Carrillo, Wesley Hoedt and Mohamed Elyounoussi, on loan across Europe. A number of intermediaries have been lined up to try to raise revenue from transfer fees and reduce the player wage bill this summer. Gao’s Shenzen-listed Lander Sports Development company reported a loss in 2018, leading the sexagenarian to sell the majority of his stake to a state-owned asset manager last March. In June he told the Financial Times that there were “no problems” with his financial situation. “I am not treating Southampton as a pig to be fattened and sold,” Gao said. “I am treating it as a child. But my children must believe they cannot depend on the boss. I have said to Southampton: ‘I am now your father. But I am putting you on the right track — you need to feed yourself.’ ”
My father in law said to me years ago, never buy a leasehold, and never buy a place with a flat roof. We did both, and had loads of problems. Leaseholds are pretty standard on apartment blocks, and the law was changed a few years ago, in favour of leaseholders.
Yeah, been bitten, so probably view it through angry goggles. Back on topic.............can we have a nice rich fan owner please.......