Well, in the sense that the parent holding company owns the sports company, then yes, separately it can. Together they are a major company.
https://m.uk.investing.com/equities/lander-real-estate-co-ltd-financial-summary Loadsa money Report is in Chinese Yuan which is 11p to the £1. So the billions quoted are not so amazing
I think you have the wrong company. Lander Holdings Group Co Ltd is the one chaired by Gao. Lander Holdings ltd looks like some tech company in Birmingham. Only English names on that board
Yeah, my point was that you were suggesting that we should be much happier, because we are being bought by the holding company, not the subsidiary, when one is merely a legal construct to represent the other.
Heh, that's really odd, because I grabbed the link off of, IIRC, Bloomberg's page for Lander, which listed Gao Jisheng as chairman. So either they've got a bad link in there somewhere, or I've completely lost my mind. Wouldn't rule out the latter, certainly. In any event, my point to TSS still stands: whether we're officially owned by Lander Holdings, or Lander Sports, or Lander Ice Cream and Arsenic, it's largely immaterial...it's the same guy, ultimately. What really matters is how we're capitalized; if the talk of a couple months ago was correct, and they were seeking to do so via debt, whether the company is worth 5b or 5p may not matter. The Glazers are worth several billion; they loaded MUFC up with debt in a leveraged purchase, and continue to pay themselves out rather large dividends while the club is still paying insane interest rates to finance that decade-old deal.
whether we're officially owned by Lander Holdings, or Lander Sports, or Lander Ice Cream and Arsenic, it's largely immaterial...it's the same guy, ultimately. _____________________ Building company names and burying company details. So reassuring. Kat is in danger of screwing her families legacy with this decision.
This from The Times that you can read for free: "The Premier League has given clearance for a £190 million takeover of Southampton by a Chinese company after months of investigations. Gao Jisheng, the chief executive of Lander Sports Development who has been accused of paying bribes to Chinese politicians, has passed the League’s owners and directors test and an announcement is expected next week. Southampton and Lander have been informed that the proposed deal is close to being given the go-ahead."
Understood. But we may well be dealing with a company with much wider scope, able to command larger investment, because it is not just a sports company, but includes a sports company.
The Times reporting that Lander have been given green light by the Premier League. Just over £190m in return for 80% of the club. Liebherr to retain 20% and have influence at board level.
On Sky, Lander deal said to be far from completion. It's very strange that all 20 clubs voted to change the rules about foreign ownership to include the rule that new owners can be blocked if guilty of something that would be in a crime in the UK even if not in their home country. Said to be related to the Lander owner who turned prosecution witness and avoided bribery charges. I suppose Saints felt that they couldn't stand out against an obviously correct rule without looking bad. Does raise the question of whether you can allow prospective owners from societies that are institutionally sexist, racist and homophobic etc.
Here you go - The Times story in full, from behind the paywall: The Premier League has given clearance for a £190 million takeover of Southampton by a Chinese company after months of investigations. Gao Jisheng, the chief executive of Lander Sports Development who has been accused of paying bribes to Chinese politicians, has passed the League’s owners and directors test and an announcement is expected next week. Southampton and Lander have been informed that the proposed deal is close to being given the go-ahead. Katharina Liebherr, the Southampton owner, has been negotiating with Lander over a sale for almost 12 months, with the Chinese property development company offering £190 million for 100 per cent of the club’s shares in March, as revealed by The Times. The matter was then passed to the Premier League, whose lawyers have investigated the sources and sufficiency of Lander’s funding, the company’s business plan and the structure of the deal as well as subjecting all potential owners and directors to the fit and proper persons test. The Premier League are satisfied that all aspects of Lander’s bid meet their requirements. The Premier League undertakes such due diligence before signing off any potential takeovers, but Lander’s offer for Southampton has attracted more interest because of Gao. The 64-year-old property developer and sports entrepreneur has been involved in two corruption cases in China and was named in Chinese state media as one of a number of businessmen who allegedly gave bribes to Xu Maiyong, the vice-mayor of Hangzhou. Gao has always maintained his innocence. Lander is proposing a phased takeover of Southampton in which it would initially buy into the club before going on to take full control. In talks with the club Lander has pledged it will not sell any players this summer, including Virgil van Dijk, who is wanted by Chelsea and Manchester City as well as Liverpool, who have been reported to the Premier League by Southampton for allegedly making an illegal approach to the Dutch defender. Liebherr intends to keep some of her Southampton shares in the short term to provide continuity before selling up completely if Lander’s promises of additional investment materialise. Lander appears happy for Liebherr to stay on as a minority shareholder. The chairman, Ralph Krueger, is 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 Times revealed earlier this week that Liebherr is also facing the prospect of a large tax bill as a result of an investigation by Germany’s Public Prosecutor’s Office into the estate of her late father Markus, who bequeathed Southampton to her following his death in 2010. Lander would be the second Chinese owners in the league after Guochuan Lai’s takeover of West Bromwich Albion last year. A meeting of Premier League chairmen yesterday agreed to toughen up the rules surrounding takeovers of clubs, though it is not clear when they will come into force. In the future, prospective owners or directors will be barred if they are judged to have misled the Premier League, or to have engaged in conduct that would constitute a criminal offence in the UK.
As fans, all we can do is go on supporting the club and hope for the best. Good news that the new owners have agreed not to sell any players this season (presumably excluding any the club wish to go)...would have been too easy for them to pay 190 mill and get a huge chunk back immediately with sales. The presence of Katharina (at least in the short term) suggests a continuing interest in our welfare....as she could easily have just walked away. I know there were recent rumours that KL had not inherited as much as was once thought and that SFC was a goodly proportion of her wealth....so can understand her wanting to spread the risk. After her father died, she sold some of his businesses or closed them down...presumably they were not money makers...perhaps he liked projects (like Saints) and not all were going to make money in the short term. Saints certainly hasn't...until now...but she obviously considered it a better investment than other projects and continued to put money in. Most fans have been calling for more investment, so will be interesting to see what will happen. We know improvements are needed at the ground and it has been talked of recently. The most important thing will be to not only buy players, but to have sufficient funds to resist selling them...unless we choose to for business and footballing reasons. Some may not have wanted this to happen, but it has, so lets hope for the best. May we live in interesting times....preferably as a blessing, not a curse.
I find it strange that KL has decided to go for Lander who seem - on the surface of it - to not be vastly wealthy, which is odd considering she is selling to them so we can have sufficient investment. The idea of them replicating the Glazers and investing on debt I also can't get my head round. It is also a strange move to choose them considering the suspicion surrounding Jisheng. He maintains his innocence but whether that's true or not, it sounds like there's certainly a bit of uncertainty regarding his past and his credentials.
I don't know if the new ruling would effect Gao. I guess there might be transcripts of his witness statements to the court, but I'm not sure how you prove someone has done something without it going through a court. Whenever the allegations against Gao have been quoted it's always been "according to Chinese state media"
It is possible that Gao slipped in under the wire....the new ruling was said to have been introduced because of Lander's attempt to buy us. It had to be allowed under the old rules and now they are trying to shut the stable door. There is also some confusion because originally it was Landers Sports attempting the purchase and it came up against the Chinese government's crackdown on companies taking on debts. Then the company buying us was switched to Gao's main company which is closer to the real money. Again...just posting talk in the media. Who really knows? Katharina presumably. Even the club have said they have not been involved and all talk has been between Gao and KL.
