Feeder club takeover - latest

[shefcanary 3,081]

Saw this on Twitter

 

 @Iandennisbbc: I understand Leeds United takeover worth 44m should be completed by the weekend with GFH Capital #lufc @BBCSport

 

If the feeder club is worth £44M, must put NCFC above £120M?

[djc 0]

Lets put this into perspective... they are the champions if europe.

[ricardo 8,109]

[quote user="shefcanary"]

Saw this on Twitter

 

 @Iandennisbbc: I understand Leeds United takeover worth 44m should be completed by the weekend with GFH Capital #lufc @BBCSport

 

If the feeder club is worth £44M, must put NCFC above £120M?

[/quote]So much for the Arab billionaires.

[Rolf Harris 33]

Ken bates buying leeds again through naughty shell company ;)

[Indy_Bones 444]

Surely the price would depend on their assets and other existing financial factors?Elland Road has to be worth a fair bit (even if it''s getting a bit run down these days) for starters.

[Old Shuck 300]

Their training ground (Thorpe Arch) is one of the top footballing facilkities in Europe but I don''t know if they still own it or lost the freehold when their finances initially imploded.

 

Whoever invests there is doing a speculate to accumulate thing-they were a top 6 club and can be again, although there is so much catching up required, you''d think it would need to be investment (which they''d never get back-so its hardly investment) on a scale of Chelsea/Man City proportions.

 

And, try as I might, I can''t see the footballing superstars of Europe running out at Elland Road, certainly not in Leeds shirts.

[BroadstairsR 2,273]

The test really is, I suppose, if you had the millions which would you prefer to invest them in? Norwich City Football Club or Leeds United Football Club.

 

Sorry, but my dosh would be on the Elland Road mob. Both are, IMO, very good prospects these days but Leeds are the epitomy of the sleeping giant in the game today. Third biggest city in the Land (?) Massive history, support and facilities all indicate an eventual return to the biggest time after the excesses of the years that made them into a joke club whose demise everybody loved.

 

Dirty Leeds will eventually return to be a plague on all our houses.  

[shefcanary 3,081]

The tricky thing here is with them being CCC at the moment what is the £44M buying.  I can''t actually now remember if they own the Stadium or the Training ground any more - it''s been hokey cokey with the local Council over ownership for the past 20 years or so.  Even if they do own it, then it''s likely that Bates will have retained some interest to support his pension anyway. 

 

My main point is I guess if Leeds can do it, then I begin to fear for the future.  On the one hand NCFC having achieved PL status given that the price paid for the club will be based on potential future earnings, then given EBITDA last year of £25m, with only a p/e ratio as low as 5 (which is fair given the heavy discount for the risky nature of football businesses) the club is worth £125M.  Thats over £200 per share.  As a shareholder (albeit a very small one) I can only commend McNasty and say his tenure has seen my holding increase in value by over 8 times in 9 years.  Nice one. 

 

But on the other hand this next bit is just to highlight that things have changed since the last time we debated heavily the future ownership of the club.  I hasten to add I am very happy with the current incumbents but they are "getting on a bit" and it is not obviously clear if there is a succession policy, either if Smith & Jones decide to sell, or god forsake, they pop their clogs before the future is sorted.  

 

The valuation I outlined above would place the value of Smith & Jones holding close to the £56M they publicly stated they wanted for their larger shareholding four or five years ago.  With future EBITDA likely to increase, if a buyer can be found who will pay what on paper is the going rate for the club now, then things might get interesting and the discussion of who would be the right owner would arise.  Given Leeds / Scum / Pompey / Plymouth / Rangers and even ManUre''s recent history, it may be that for the long term good of the club (say four or five years hence) the club is getting to a stage where it is too valuable for the club to remain as it is, a club steeped in the local community.  I hope that there are plans made to ensure the club remains part of the community and doesn''t disappear over to the Middle East, Siberia or Chicago.

[lappinitup 629]

[quote user="shefcanary"]The valuation I outlined above would place the value of Smith & Jones holding close to the £56M they publicly stated they wanted for their larger shareholding four or five years ago.[/quote]Wrong, wrong, wrong. The valuation put out by the club at the time of the Cullum fiasco, £56m was made up of £16m for ALL the shares, £20m to wipe out the debt and the other £20m Cullum said he would invest in the team. D&M''s 61% of the shares worked out at around £9.8m which is a far cry from your £56m.

[Bill 1,788]

" I hope that there are plans made to ensure the club remains part of the community and doesn''t disappear over to the Middle East, Siberia or Chicago."

 

Clubs like ours tend not to be of much attraction to these type of ''hinvestors''. You need to be in the parlous state the paupers were in, in 2007, for there to be genuine interest. You have no say in the deal and pretty much have to accept what is offered.

 

I would be concerned if I were a Leeds fan. The company involved GFH has seen it''s share price (and worth collapse). It was originally supposed to have been fronting up the deal on behalf of a number of wealthy backers in the middle east - they have now departed leaving GFH to go it alone. They are primarily a property company, which would suggest that is their interest in Leeds Utd.

 

Having Ken Bates and them together would rather seem like having Jimmy Savile run your local youth club disco, because he is bringing Gary Glitter along to help.

 

The lesson should be not to put yourself in such a position that these types of ''hinvestors'' can circle round your club like vultures.

[shefcanary 3,081]

[quote user="lappinitup"][quote user="shefcanary"]The valuation I outlined above would place the value of Smith & Jones holding close to the £56M they publicly stated they wanted for their larger shareholding four or five years ago.[/quote]

Wrong, wrong, wrong. The valuation put out by the club at the time of the Cullum fiasco, £56m was made up of £16m for ALL the shares, £20m to wipe out the debt and the other £20m Cullum said he would invest in the team. D&M''s 61% of the shares worked out at around £9.8m which is a far cry from your £56m.
[/quote]

 

Lapps old boy - fair enough.  Still the main thrust of my argument was that the current valuation based on results is something that if someone did come up with the goods, it would be of such a size it would be very difficult to turn down if one was focussing on solely the financial outcome.  On even your basis, £66M (roughly 53% of £125M) versus £10M is quite an improvement.  However I think it is a big if!!!

[shefcanary 3,081]

[quote user="City1st"]

" I hope that there are plans made to ensure the club remains part of the community and doesn''t disappear over to the Middle East, Siberia or Chicago."

 

Clubs like ours tend not to be of much attraction to these type of ''hinvestors''. You need to be in the parlous state the paupers were in, in 2007, for there to be genuine interest. You have no say in the deal and pretty much have to accept what is offered.

 

I would be concerned if I were a Leeds fan. The company involved GFH has seen it''s share price (and worth collapse). It was originally supposed to have been fronting up the deal on behalf of a number of wealthy backers in the middle east - they have now departed leaving GFH to go it alone. They are primarily a property company, which would suggest that is their interest in Leeds Utd.

 

Having Ken Bates and them together would rather seem like having Jimmy Savile run your local youth club disco, because he is bringing Gary Glitter along to help.

 

The lesson should be not to put yourself in such a position that these types of ''hinvestors'' can circle round your club like vultures.

[/quote]

 

Thanks for the lead City1st.  Just tried to research the GFH Group whilst on the train, but EMT firewall would not allow the site to be displayed.  They raise money from mainly Islamic investors so I think the EMT firewall setting is probably a bit harsh, but maybe there is something more sinister going on there!  [;)]

[star_manic 0]

[quote user="BroadstairsR"]

The test really is, I suppose, if you had the millions which would you prefer to invest them in? Norwich City Football Club or Leeds United Football Club.

 

Sorry, but my dosh would be on the Elland Road mob. Both are, IMO, very good prospects these days but Leeds are the epitomy of the sleeping giant in the game today. Third biggest city in the Land (?) Massive history, support and facilities all indicate an eventual return to the biggest time after the excesses of the years that made them into a joke club whose demise everybody loved.

 

Dirty Leeds will eventually return to be a plague on all our houses.  

[/quote]...........a bit lower than third broadstairs, that would be Manchester followed by Sheffield so fifth at best i would say, but newcastle may be ahead of them as well.

[paul moy 235]

Deal to be signed today apparently according to Talksport and Warnock will be given funds to spend in January. Amazingly though nobody knows who has current ownership of major assets such as training ground or Elland Road.   

[Rolf Harris 33]

ken bates bought it off of himself

[Webbo118 0]

Do we have to give formal permission for this to happen?

[Dubai Mark 0]

I will be shocked if Leeds dont now start to fly up the Championship and predict that they will challenge for a play-off spot or even end up winning the play-off. I''m serious, putting aside the "feeder club" thing, they are a big club who were ripe for investment, have the fan base and most importantly, love or hate him, a Manager already in place who with only an average investment can work wonders at Championship level.

[shefcanary 3,081]

Or they might become impatient, sack Colin before he gets going, bring in Mark Hughes or RDM, then see it all go tits up as Leeds city Council refuse to sell back the ground ''cos the offer was not high enough, then relegation and adminstration. 

 

It''s on a knife-edge: where''s your money?

[......and Smith must score. 1,637]

It''ll be interesting to see if Leeds can get up a head of steam and mount a promotion challenge. At best I think they may make the Play-Offs but miss out eventuallyBut all this is not as interesting as just a few weeks ago when the main '' Pink-Un '' headline comments pages produced a nasty rash of Leeds fans giving it large as to how, on the back of this marvellous saviour, they would pass us on the way up as we slid down to certain relegation. Since then of course we''ve gone on a fantastic unbeaten run while they''re in free-fall and slithering down the Championship table.For some strange reason the northern Neaderthals seen to have crawled back into their caves. Sweet or what ?

[Jacko 0]

I think Leeds fans should be viewing this takeover with a mixture of great excitement and some trepidation. If these boys are the real deal then some serious investment could be coming through the door. It doesn''t guarantee Premier League football as Leicester can vouch for but it certainly won''t do any harm.

But I would also be asking some serious questions about this takeover. Who are these people? Do they actually have any money or are they another Notts County? They were fronted by Munto Finance. A company who seem quite similar in many respects. Ultimately we are all speculating and guessing. Time will tell whether they are serious.

[Bill 1,788]

Thye probably are very serious

 

Problem is, about what ?

 

 

 

 

[a1canary 0]

If Leeds fans are genuinely excited by this rather than highly suspicious then they are even dumber than we all know they already are.

And if Norwich fans think this just somehow means they''re going to fly up the table.... oh dear!

The days of Abramovich style takeovers where an owner swoops in and buys their way up the table are long gone because of FFP. And besides there just aren''t and haven''t been any Abramovich style takeovers anyway save for the Man City owners. By this i mean owners who are more than happy to spend any amount necessary to get all the best players they can. Not only are owners like this like hen''s teeth, they are now no longer allowed to do what Chelsea and ManC have already done and rack up huge losses in pursuit of their dreams.

Any other ''takeover'' by anything other than a genuine fan of the club involves an owner who wants to make money out of the club so is a BAD thing for the club. And not something to get excited about. Bin fans and Portsmouth fans and Blackburn fans have learnt this the hard way. How long will it be before people understand this and get it into their heads?

Going back to Leeds, i suggest people read this from an Arsenal blog.

http://blog.emiratesstadium.info/archives/25264

[Bill 1,788]

spot on A1, well said

 

unfortunately our rather dimwitted neighbours still haven''t quite grasped this, despite all the evidence that is staring them in the eyes

 

that these ''hinvestors'' are coming through an intermediary should sound somekind of warning but I don''t dout there will be numerous binner type halwits in Yorkshire who think these mysterious folk only have their interests at heart

 

oh dear

 

 

[Bws Cat 0]

Really we should be thankful for this

It adds more salt into the grimmy, infected wound that is Leeds United. They believe that they are going to rocket up the table and get promoted? Let them.

Everybody else should just grab a cold one and watch the fun.

[Bws Cat 0]

Of course I mean grimy, not "grimmy".