According to the Post, Wael is selling a 55% stake in Dwane Sports to a Kuwaiti investor - Hussain Al Saeed - but remaining as Club President. Apparently, this will release further investment into the playing squad including in this transfer window. It's a bit of a surprise and means that we'll now have Jordanian and Kuwaiti co-owners, but additional investment is always welcome. We'll see. Exclusive: Wael Al-Qadi set to secure Kuwaiti investment for Bristol Rovers - Bristol Live (bristolpost.co.uk)
Hussain Al Saeed is the is the regional head of the Corporate banking group Ahli United Bank, not much is known about his personal wealth Al Qadi has invested more than £20,million of his personal wealth to keep the club afloat during Covid and beyond
EFL have approved Hussain Al Saeed purchase into Bristol Rovers, full article on Bristol Live. More information on Bristol Rovers web site
Good news! Additional investment into our debt-free club will help us move forward both on and off the pitch. Now to clinch that elusive Mbappe signing!
Bristol Rovers Football Club Confirms New Ownership Structure. Bristol Rovers Football Club can confirm that today the EFL has approved an agreement for Mr. Hussain AlSaeed to purchase a 55% share in Dwane Sports, the holding company for Bristol Rovers Football Club. He will join Wael (40.5%) and Samer Al Qadi (4.5%) as co-owners of Dwane Sports and as a result the football club. As part of this process, the Club can confirm that the debt owed to Dwane Sports will be capitalised. This means that apart from our ordinary trade creditors the club is substantively debt free. Mr. AlSaeed will be joining the club as chairman of the board, with Mr. Al Qadi remaining as club president and Abdullatif AlSaeed as executive vice president. In a statement, Mr. AlSaeed said: "I am privileged to join Wael as a partner of BRFC. I have been a huge football fan for many years, and it has always been my ambition to own a stake in a club. BRFC is the one club that I most desired to be a part of, due to its great fanbase and future potential. From this day on, I assure the fans that we will be working tirelessly on the sustainability and growth of the football club. Rovers are a club with huge potential that is still untapped, and it is our duty to make sure that we do everything possible to improve the current state. I have really enjoyed my time in the lovely city of Bristol, and I hope to contribute to the community in the best manner possible. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our beloved fans for their continuous support to the club. I look forward to meeting you all at our first home game of the upcoming season." Mr. Al Qadi added: “I am delighted and honoured to welcome on board Mr Hussain and Mr Abdullatif AlSaeed. This has been a long process to get to this stage to ensure that the changes are suitable for all parties and give us the best possible chance for success. Over the past few months as discussions have developed it has been clear to me that Hussain and Abdullatif not only have a consistent vision with ours for the club but they also have the expertise and resource to help move us forward quicker. I am sure that you will all join me in welcoming our new investors to the club and giving them all of your support to help us achieve our aims.” please log in to view this image
Think I saw his Son the new Chairman?? walking with Tom Gorringe at the match on Saturday, asked Tom when the tents were going back up got a very emphatic they are not in reply
Hussain Al-Saeed outlines plans for Bristol Rovers infrastructure in first public interview The chairman spoke to local media for the first time alongside president Wael Al-Qadi. New Bristol Rovers chairman Hussain AlSaeed and club president Wael Al-Qadi have discussed the takeover process as well as some of Mr Hussain's plans for the football club, providing an update on a new stadium as well as the South Stand development. The duo were speaking as part of their first public interview together since the Kuwaiti businessman purchased a 55 per cent stake in Dwane Sports, the company that holds a majority share in Rovers. The confirmation of AlSaeed becoming a co-owner in Dwane Sports and, as a result, in the club was announced on August 3 with Wael (40.5 per cent) and Samer Al-Qadi (4.5 per cent) still maintaining their respective stakes with the former remaining as club president with Abdullatif AlSaeed joining as executive vice president. Rovers also confirmed that as part of the takeover process, the debt owed to Dwane Sports will be capitalised. This means that apart from ordinary trade creditors the club is substantively debt free. "We met with Wael and we talked. We have a lot in common and we shared a lot of ideas together and I thought we could really form a good team to invest in Bristol Rovers and work together. That's why the decision came to Bristol Rovers. "Of course, starting the negotiations, that took some time but eventually and slowly we started meeting on the side other than the financial and we started discussing ideas. We have a lot of things in common and we believe we can work with Wael very well and he believes that he can work with us very well and we have formed good partners." AlSaeed added: "I think they [negotiations] started in February. We started talking and started looking at the club. As you know, so many things in the EFL need approval and have to take some time. It took us some time. We couldn't really look very deep in the club or examine inside the club but just the financial during that period but recently, within the last two weeks, when the EFL approved us that's when we started looking more deep into the club and the operation of the club and see what we can do." In the matchday programme ahead of Saturday's 1-1 home draw with Barnsley, a synopsis of AlSaeed's background was provided which said: "Hussain is a Kuwaiti businessman and entrepreneur with extensive experience in treasury and investment management, as well as real estate development. He is the founder and chairman of Al Elmam Real Estate Company, a significant real estate firm in Kuwait. "AlSaeed earned a Bachelor of Industrial and Systems Engineering from the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles, Ca, in 1983. His extensive experience and expertise have contributed to his success in the business world. "He began his career in finance as a treasury and investment manager at the Commercial Bank of Kuwait. He later served as assistant general manager at Kuwait Investment International Company and then founded M.E.C Consultants in Kuwait. "In 1993, AlSaeed established Al Elmam Estate Company, which has been an active participant in Kuwait's real estate market. The company has successfully developed various projects, including multi-story group housing, residential townships, shopping malls, office buildings, hotels and restaurants." When asked in his interview with Radio Bristol about plans for the club, the chairman revealed: "We will concentrate on the academy and the training ground of Bristol Rovers as part of our development because we feel Bristol Rovers has big potential and requires a lot of work but I'm really seeking from our fans to be patient. "We cannot do it all at once, we need time. We need to first examine the operation and see how we can improve it. The main thing is to really run a club very wisely and to really sustain it so that even when we advance to a higher league then we will be ready in terms of infrastructure, in terms of interior operation so that we can compete and continue going up. "It's not that we rush into it and try to go to the next league without really investing in the infrastructures. The training ground, the academy and of course the stadium which is a very big challenge for us." New stadium Back in April, Al-Qadi said the club were “moving in the right direction” regarding their proposed plans to build a new stadium at St Philip’s Marsh after the Conygar Investment Company confirmed they had acquired the option to explore planning for the 14.7 acre Fruit Market site. Regarding a new stadium and the latest news in that particular process, AlSaeed said: "We've been in meetings with the developer and we are still talking to the developer. I think that the initial idea is that he will build the stadium for us in exchange for taking the Memorial. "But of course as developers [it] takes time and they need to study and look at the numbers back and forth. At the moment we are in the process of negotiating with him how we can go forward. But certainly we are determined to push this through. "We have had a couple of meetings so far and we are looking to have more and continue. Of course we appreciate so far the support that we've been getting from the local council regarding this project and we hope that this support can continue until we finally sign for the stadium. But definitely when we have any concrete news or something or an agreement on the table the fans will be the first ones to know." Al-Qadi added: "The main reason I continue talking and eventually signing up with Hussain is that he was on board with everything that we were aiming to do at this club. In terms of infrastructure, in terms of reaching the Championship so we're totally agreed on that and that's our aim and that's what we're going to work towards. "It's very difficult to give dates or to even predict because these things do take time as Hussain has said and as we have found out in the various projects that we've initiated in the past. It's very difficult to give a time line. But again, I can assure the fans that Hussain and I are on board and in agreement. We know what the aims are and we're going to work very hard to try and achieve these pillars that we have said before." The club president also gave an update on the South Stand development, saying: "Expecting a stand to be built in a couple of weeks wasn't going to happen. The way things are with contractors, with councils, with everything. These hiccups do happen and unfortunately some hiccups have happened and we're dealing with it and again the goal and ambition is to get that stand built as soon as possible and we're all working towards that. "We're hostage to events that are out of control in terms of just getting approvals or contractors and timelines. You can plan all you want to get what you want done in a month or two but in reality when you come to execute, things get delayed. "The way we're handling it is that we're trying to manage it to get it done as soon as possible. How long that will take, I can hope it's short-term."
I do believe that Wael Al-Qadi is trying to take this club forward and I think that in purchasing the training ground and developing it was a posotive step in the right direction but things take time
Anyone know what this means? Is it just finalising debts being cleared? Someone replied on twitter that when new shares are added it means cash injection. Is this right? I have no knowledge in this stuff unfortunately.
Not sure about that. For starters, shouldn’t it be “Dwane Sports” rather than “Bristol Rovers Football Club Ltd” as that’s the actual company that owns the club? AlSaeed bought some of Wael’s shares in order to become the majority shareholder. So I’m guessing that this, if legit, could be a cash injection of £6.2m? Or perhaps it’s capitalising the club’s debts? Without more context or detail it’s difficult to know what this means.
Keiran Maguire who posted this on twitter is a football financial expert so I'm certain it's legit, it's just understanding what it actually means
