Foreign Tycoon investment ?

Lets hope for more Leicester than Man U when it comes to owners!

 

This is a reasonable scenario, DH. The fact that the 'entourage' includes two sons could suggest a longer involvement if all goes well. A chance of doubling their money over say five years makes it a reasonable proposition. They gain and we gain. My guess is that their mindset is already reasonably close to Webber's english style 'moneyball' approach, which an injection of investment could take up towards lower PL level. The model used to be Southampton, but now it's more like Brighton.

 

I remember many moons ago when I lived in Brighton the clusterfuck they got themselves into .
They sold their club , the owner bulldozed the stadium and sold the land to build a Toys R us and they had to beg Gillingham to ground share .

Until a local fan bought them and built a new stadium near the University.
They were close to dissapeaing all together if it wasn't for Fatboy slim and people with a few quid that supports them .

 

I also lived close to Brighton back then and remember they then moved to Withdean athletics stadium for matches. Amex and other investments pulled them out of the more. We're starting from a much better place if we do get this investment.

 

Yes we are in much better shape than Brighton were in the late 90s it just opened my eyes to unscrupulous businessmen that can completely sell the fans down the river .

Toys R us aren't doing so well now so that's karma.

 

I have to agree with everything Duncan has said - especially be careful what you wish for. To Americans sport is an entertainment and, importantly, an investment on which they expect a return. Somebody mentioned Liverpool. Unlike the Glaziers at Manure the owners do not brazenly scoop money out of the Club but like all PLC's Liverpool will declare a dividend, which can be artificially inflated, and who owns all the shares? It can work but usually at a far slower pace than the fans expect. I recall that similar owners bought our friends down the road and, as I understand it, slow progress is being made both on and off the pitch but the Club still remain midtable in Div 1 and there has been no huge influx of capital. Like Duncan I prefer to have owners who love the Club and whose main aim is financial stability rather than risk people who come in promising the earth but with one eye on Colney and thinking with the expansion of Norwich and Hethersett that land,with a new road, is worth a fortune for redevelopment. I echo the view of Duncan - be very careful what you wish for.

 

Wow , I hope that doesn't make you a moron by association.

If I remember correctly you spent most of your career as an accountant or in finance .

You usually skim through the books and remind us that when we sell players most of that sum will be gobbled up on day to day running of the club .

Worst case scenario we sell 51% of the club fail to get promoted for 5 years and the American businessman begins to asset strip the club to keep his financial backers happy.

One thing is for certain money will be trickling out of the club into the accounts of the American investors regardless of how well signings turn out or what league we are in .

 

https://www.pinkun.com/sport/norwic...an-maguire-attanasio-investment-talks-9003546

Kieran Maguire does "Price of Football" and other analysis of football finances. His interview with the Pinkun about the investment largely agree with the thoughts people have had on this thread. Couple of mechanisms by which they could buy into the club and inject capital, but the key thing is that the club shouldn't take debt on to make this work. That would be concerning.

 

Good way of putting it Taking on debt to bring in finances seems like it could be expensive.

 

Another factor in this is that it has the potential to really screw with summer recruitment. Is our budget for a particular signing £1m or £10m? Or anywhere in between?

 

I think it’s right to be cautious, but to be clear a 51% investment (as opposed to taking over 100%) makes it far less likely and much harder to asset strip. That’s why my preference would be a smaller investment like that, than a full takeover.

Of course, it also makes it far harder to inject loads of money to splash for the big time, because a moneybags owner with full control can do what they want.

To pluck some numbers out of thin air: if you imagine valuing Norwich at £150m, Delia could handover 50% of the shares based on £50m paid by them plus requiring an immediate cash injection of £50m. You could do that by Deli giving 1/3 of the shares and then the same number of shares issued as extra equity. It would obviously be way more complicated irl but that’s a simple way.

That won’t be the sort of sum that makes us Champions League, but would be a big boost for getting out of the Championship. If we got promoted, we would probably still have cash to invest in a real push to stay up.

And with a 50/50 ownership (I know it’s actually different to that as not just Delia is shareholder, but for the sake of argument), in order to put more money into the club, all shareholders would have to agree, so these Americans would not have free rein just to spend spend spend with debt piled onto the club. We would also only be allowed a net loss of something like £40m, so that’s the max they could put in as more equity if I understand the rules correctly.

 

Budweiser is not popular in Milwaukee it’s aSt Louis beer (Sargent probably likes it. ) Miller is the Milwaukee beer.

 

Haven't had Miller for a while, might have to seek it out

 

I'll stick to Woodfords

 

The Athletic are reporting that Attanasio is looking to buy Michael Foulgers stake in NCFC, giving him 18% ownership.

Delia and MWJ will hold onto their 53% shareholding.

 

I think the Foulger family got into financial problems and sold Banham Poultry a few years ago to some Indian chicken baron.

 

It's not immediately obvious how additional investment would come out of that arrangement.

 

As Duncan said, before I retired I was an Accountant specialising in Company Administration and liquidation. I did a 2 year secondment to the States sorting out a difficult situation and I can assure you that American Businessmen are very cautious, will never borrow more than the collateral covering a loan, will not take major risks and will only invest if they are more than likely to make a substantial profit. As Rick implies there is no merit to an American Businessman in just buying 18% of the shares and putting in a large lump of money.

 

18% buys him a seat at the table, and a chance to start to influence things. It gives Delia and MWJ a chance to judge his intentions and see whether they want him to take on more ownership.

If he buys 18% and immediately encourages the club to spend beyond its means in order to achieve promotion and increase the value of his shares, safe to say he's not someone who will be given a chance to increase his shareholding.

 

The only realistic way I can see him buying 18% is if he then invests more money and is issued more shares to increase the percentage.