Saints sold to Sport Republic

Not without his vax cert.

 

And more ...

Kraft and Ankersen both live in London and will make the short trip south to attend games — champions and league leaders Manchester City’s trip to St Mary’s on Saturday, January 22 is likely to be their first — but it’s believed they will not be attending daily meetings at the stadium.

“The checks and balances will probably change,” Semmens admits to The Athletic. “However, I once sat for three-and-a-half hours with Rasmus, and he didn’t say a single word I disagreed with.

“They don’t want to be influencing decisions on a day-to-day basis; we will build a plan together, and then they want us to go and execute the plan.”

 

The idea of borrowing money against a club with our revenues and a massive 75m high risk loan is absurd. No wonder we didn’t entertain such ideas

 

For a numpty like me, how does it work for owners when it comes to funding the club day-to-day? I know that money we generate from sales, sponsorship, TV deals etc will cover (or aim to cover) much of our running costs, but what is allowed from an owner's point of view?

And I'm not talking about spending on transfers, but for actually keeping the club operating. Under Gao we had to take out a loan, but if that happened under these guys/an owner who wanted to invest, would they have been able to just up the budgets and inject more cash to avoid any borrowing?

PS - can someone answer my earlier question about whether we are owned by Solak, or Kraft & Ankersen?

 

Kraft & Ankersen are on the board representing Sport Republic, the principal investor of which is Dragan Solak.

 

Ownership, my take is we are owned by Sports republic (Kraft & Ankerson) even though it appears the majority of the funding came from Solak who is a director

The challenge for a football club, like most businesses is cash flow. Regular income comes from home games with periodic payments from broadcasters, not sure how commercial income/sponsorship works (lump sums or regular payments). So its a bit boom or bust especially during the pandemic.
A lot of clubs borrow to fund the quiet times like the summer when regular income isn't coming in.
Our recent loan was simply to keep us alive hence we got done by 9% interest for a high risk investment. With an interest payment of about £7m per year we need to get this paid down fast as its a real drag on funds.
In future we may need to borrow externally a fund to balance things out or the owners fund it themselves

 

They can pump money into the club in the form of a shareholder loan, and then convert the loan to equity later.

 

https://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/southampton/news/56662/

 

We are now 80% owned by Sport Republic Ltd, directors being Kraft and Ankerson.

Sport Republic Ltd is wholly owned by Sport Republic Holding Ltd. Directors Kraft and Ankerson. Ankerson has 66% shareholding Kraft 33%.

Solak was also appointed a director of Sports Republic Holding Ltd on the 4th January.

Ultimately I would imagine Solak will be the majority investor in the holding co. With the others running the day to day business.

In short that nice Mr Solak is our new owner.

 

Shame we moved to St Mary’s as otherwise the ground would have been renamed to Dragons Dell

 

I wonder who is on the cards as other clubs in this network

I can only assume a Danish one and a Serbian one but not necessarily

RB seems to work by having clubs in developing nations (which I didn’t realise) then a minor European league (Austria) then the major league

Not sure what the comparison is between the Austrian and Danish/Serbian leagues are.

 

It isn’t absurd as it sounds in this inflationary environment.
Large debt against a business is actually incentivised in this climate. But it definitely seems that these guys are setting up for long term stability in everything they’re doing.

I hope we do become part of a network of clubs personally. Being able to scout & loan players (in both directions) is a huge advantage.
I’ve been saying for a long time the soul of the premier league is gone. For me, we either have to embrace these new ideas and global sport, or we cannot compete.

This takeover has come at an incredible time for me. I was starting to long for the championship. Now I have hope again.

 

What does hope do?

 

Builds rebellions

 

Depends really. Serviceable debts don’t have to be a problem, so long as the capital is gradually reducing and the interest is not excessive. Especially if the asset is worth considerably more than the debt. As an example, if you win the lottery tomorrow, it doesn’t automatically make sense to pay off your mortgage straight away.

 

Two Charlie Austins = Four jockeys

 

B******s, just paid mine off this morning after winning at the weekend

 

Well they do Hot Dogs, just saying!!!!

 

Buy another ticket

 

The Austrians can sing , Danes make great bacon and butter , and Serbia produce Grate tennis players .