Confimred new owners of Raeding Footbal Club

[SPARTA]

Typically Jonny Fordham. £21m debt? He only has to take 5 minutes to read last June's accounts to see £38m debt, plus whatever we've added to it since.

Hopefully they'll get a move on with this before we lose any players we don't want to sell. And ideally a boardroom reshuffle. I'm very much with Burmam on that one.

[Pepe the Horseman]

That's from GetReading ennit? Not JF.

[SPARTA]

That's from GetReading ennit? Not JF.

JF was first with his article in The Sun this morning. CW has previously ran with £38m debt, as per the last accounts, but clearly trusts JF.

[Nameless]

Whoever buys will have to make boardroom changes as the TSI people will go. If SJM walks away then Ian Wood-Smith would go too, leaving just Nigel Howe !
Anyone saying they would not put together a new board is unrealistic , whether they totally change the manAgement team below board level would be a different question.

[Terminal Boardom]

Reading FC call board meeting to discuss takeover bids

The issue of an unpaid tax bill will also be high on the agenda with Royals currently owing £1.6 million to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) with another payment, of a similar amount, due in under two weeks time.

With HMRC now chasing the club, it has become even more important for Madejski and the board to find a new owner.

And in the past week two frontrunners have emerged as potential new owners.

Israeli billionaire Teddy Sagi flew in for talks last Wednesday and is the preferred choice of the board to take over.

But Indian businessman Mohit Burman, who part owns the Kings XI Punjab, a cricket team in the Indian Premier League (IPL) also wants to take control at the club.

And while Sagi brings real estate plans to the table with his bid, including building a shopping centre on the car park at Madejski Stadium, Burman has a proven history in running sports teams.

As well as the Kings XI, he also has interest in badminton, hockey and kabaddi in his native India.

Burman has pledged to invest heavily in the club to help take it back to the Premier League but wants to implement a big shake-up at board level.

The 45-year-old feels it is time for a change and would like to replace the current directors with some fresh blood.

But Sagi meanwhile has agreed to continue working with the board should his bid be given the green light. Both offers are for just £1 but will also see the club's debt, totalling around £21m, wiped out.

Although Sagi and Burman are the frontrunners to take over, interest also remains from consortiums in America and Ireland.

Did someone mention kabaddi?



Count me in!

[leww_rfc]

Home vs Away fans at HT?

[loyalroyal4life]

regardless of what the debt figure is, as long as bid is based on total debt being wiped, does it matter?

[Nameless]

regardless of what the debt figure is, as long as bid is based on total debt being wiped, does it matter?

Total debt won't be wiped out, it will just be owed to someone else. As long as they don't want it repaid, or at least not all at once or in the near future then we carry on as before. But very few football clubs don't have debt

[JIM]

who is the fly on the wall at the board meeting today ?

[Norfolk Royal]

Yeah, who have we got stationed in the bushes today?

[Sutekh]

I actually like the sound of this Indian chap. Has experience of running sports set ups and would initiate a complete shake up and change of ownership at board level.

All I see with the Israeli plan is more issues and distractions along the lines of just where is this shopping centre etc. going to be built. There are just so many issues with using the car park as not only is there the problems with dealing with the decontamination but there are also problems with the logistics of building it and maintaining a hotel and football club in daily operation. Not to mention I don't think the council would be too keen to wipe away the park and ride which I think is something they're said previously they wouldn't countenance.

Of course money talks but it's bad enough around the place on match days without adding yet more traffic into the mix.

[kwik-silva]

Yeah, I wrote a blog on the two owners which I shan't rehash as it's basically that exact principle. The Burman family have a pretty great history of investing in, and running sports teams. They own a hockey team, Mohit has a 46% stake in KXIP, and his brother invested $10m in Team Lotus for a minor stake. He seems to be a fan of sport, as well as football, and I'd much prefer to have his expertise from actually running those clubs.

The only thing about running an IPL team is that the owner seems to have a wider stretching role than is traditional in football - what with the auction etc. - but reading his interviews he seems very level headed and very business astute which is good.

[winchester_royal]

I think the issue with the Indian is just how much money he has behind him. Seems like he's part of a wealthy family, but so's AZ and we all know how that turned out.

[genome]

With Sagi, surely he wouldn't buy the club on the off-chance that the council might approve his real est8 plans? I would've thought he would have researched and got the potential green light before committing to buy a whole football club.

[kwik-silva]

I think the issue with the Indian is just how much money he has behind him. Seems like he's part of a wealthy family, but so's AZ and we all know how that turned out.

True, but he - and his brothers - seem to have a history of investing in sports, successfully, which should belie those fears slightly? KXIP are profitable, and if that money goes back to him then I would assume he has some money.

With Sagi, surely he wouldn't buy the club on the off-chance that the council might approve his real est8 plans? I would've thought he would have researched and got the potential green light before committing to buy a whole football club.

Yeah, I'm slightly concerned about that, especially because the council have been wary of expanding shopping out that way as it'd drag people away from the town centre.

Also the tax bill wouldn't be an issue with Mohit apparently:

Charles Watts @charles_watts
Mohit Burman will pay the tax bill within 3 working days if his bid is accepted. Could solve the issue now #readingfc

[JordCot]

I would rather we sell players i.e le fondre in order to pay the tax bill and then take a bit more time choosing between the two guys the fact that Burman is willing to pay our tax bill within 3 days of us accepting his bid shouldn't be part of the decision

[Pepe the Horseman]

£2m + Nicky Maynard would be nice.

EDIT: Erm. Wrong thread, although it could apply to this one as well I spose.

[Sutekh]

The Chronicle have also summarised the current state of play....


Israeli billionaire Teddy Sagi and Mohit Burman from India are both attempting to take control of the club, ending the on-going takeover saga.

Reading FC chairman Sir John Madejski and majority shareholder Anton Zingarevich are looking to hand over the reins to a new owner.

Sagi is believed to have visited the Madejski Stadium last week to discuss his ambitious plans with the club.

They include turning the area around the Madejski Stadium into a retail park with hotel and building houses on the club’s Hogwood Park training ground, with Royals poised to move to a new training facility at Bearwood in the near future.

Sagi, 41, is worth around £1.5 billion according to Forbes. It is thought he could purchase Reading for £1 then pay off the club’s debt which amounted to £38 million when the club was relegated from the Premier League in 2013.

The Israeli made his fortune through Playtech Corp, which provides the software for bookmakers’ websites and gambling machines. He also bought Camden Market for £400 million earlier this year.

Reports suggest if Sagi’s bid is successful, Madejski and Zingarevich could stay on as minority shareholders.

The pair are looking for a quick solution to the ownership situation, with Reading being pressed by HMRC to settle a £3.2 million tax bill, according to reports.

However, Burman, Indian part-owner of IPL cricket team Punjab Kings XI, is rivaling Sagi’s takeover bid. He is operating under the name Pavilion Sports and is eager to pump cash into the Royals in an effort to win promotion back to the Premier League.

Burman also owns badminton and kabaddi teams in India and is keen to break into English football.

[Yorkshire Royal]

I'm just going to make this point again. Teddy Sagi is adept at and focused on making more money. You cannot make money out of owning a football club. If he wants to buy Reading FC, it's 100% for the real estate potential that someone has highlighted to him. He will not invest his own money into the club and will have no real interest in it. He does not even especially care about football. We will not see him at games, he will not speak publicly (he doesn't really speak English anyway) and will simply leave the board in place to run the club, debt free admittedly. He has no interest in Reading as a place or the people/supporters of Reading.

Once he's made his money from what ever deal he has seen, he will sell the club and move on to the next deal.

I'm not therefore convinced he is really the kind of owner a typical football fan would want for their club.

[JordCot]

I'm just going to make this point again. Teddy Sagi is adept at and focused on making more money. You cannot make money out of owning a football club. If he wants to buy Reading FC, it's 100% for the real estate potential that someone has highlighted to him. He will not invest his own money into the club and will have no real interest in it. He does not even especially care about football. We will not see him at games, he will not speak publicly (he doesn't really speak English anyway) and will simply leave the board in place to run the club, debt free admittedly. He has no interest in Reading as a place or the people/supporters of Reading.

Once he's made his money from what ever deal he has seen, he will sell the club and move on to the next deal.

I'm not therefore convinced he is really the kind of owner a typical football fan would want for their club.

R u ITK?