No Trust, No strategy, No effective Communication

[MmmMonsterMunch]

You'd fcuking hope not

[Royal Lady]

This post will be more useful to the OP and others who perhaps follow news about the club less closely. It might also be helpful as a ‘join the dots’ exercise re the new ownership. This is all based on published information, except where caveated with ‘we believe’ etc.

The Thai consortium acquired Reading FC Ltd from RFC Holdings in mid-September 2014. Technically the shares in the Club are held in equal measure by 4 UK registered limited companies. However, searches at Companies House show that these companies in turn seem to be wholly owned individual subsidiaries of four companies registered in the Far East. The Football Club is:

- 25% owned by GPT Football Investment Ltd and 25% owned by GPT UK Investment Ltd, which both have Narin Niruttinanon as their sole director.
- 25% owned by RFC UK Investment Co Ltd, which has Sasima Srivikorn as its sole director.
- 25% owned by Universal FICO Ltd, which has Sumrith Thanakarnjanasuth as its sole director.
Since the takeover Reading Football Club Limited has registered new Articles of Association at Companies House.

The word ‘owner’ in the context of English football has taken on some connotations of active, upfront, in your face involvement by a dominating individual. I’m sure you can think of some. The Thai consortium at Reading does not appear to be going down that route. It might be more helpful to think of these three individuals (Narin, Sumrith, Sasima) as ‘investors’. Of the eight directors on the Board of the Football Club, in addition to the three 'investors', there are two other Thai directors who are not shareholders but represent the Thai interests and are senior business figures in their own right. There are also (from before the takeover) Sir John Madejski (now co-chairman with Sasima) , Nigel Howe (the CEO) and Ian Wood-Smith. Several other Thais are involved as advisers, one of whom is Samrit-as-featured-on-Facebook, who has experience of owning a football club in Thailand.

The objective of the consortium has not been expressed to STAR but we believe it is almost self-evidently a continuation of the previous mission, namely to establish the club in the Premier League in the manner of a Stoke, Swansea or Southampton. We believe the strategy by which this could be achieved is using Reading’s competitive advantage over most other Championship clubs – the quality of the Academy. This should attract better quality prospects, better and lower cost players into the team and inevitably higher transfer fees out. The Bearwood development, which we believe to be on-going, is a key part and cost of that strategy.

The Thais have paid off all the major external debts created by the previous ownership for which we all ought to be thankful. The financial legacy of the previous ownership has been both damaging and enduring. Because as fans we were not confronted with ‘Save the Royals’ collection buckets and mournful faces on regional TV news, Pompey-style, we probably don’t fully appreciate how bad the situation was 6 months ago but STAR, in a previous press release, has commented on the heroic efforts and contributions of long-standing members of the club management.

However as Nicky Hammond and others have explained the club’s / owners’ hands are quite tightly tied by the regulations on Financial Fair Play and by the high wage costs of ‘talent’ currently under contract but not on the pitch. The owners will stick to the FFP rules (unlike some clubs who see fit to chance a £50m fine) so it’s now down the skills of football management, transfer policy and fitness regimes to improve the current situation. You can perhaps see why the new owners haven’t come in shouting ‘Bright New Dawn’ – especially given the last guy who did so.

To pick up on a couple more rumours mentioned elsewhere. STAR believe it is exceedingly unlikely that the Thais are about to sell the football club; and believe that is exceedingly unlikely that Chris Samuelson is involved in any current / future dealings with the club.

Who owns the 4th 25%? - I can only see 3 listed

[Tommy Jenkins]

Khunying Sasima has purchased 25% of the club,
Khun Narin Niruttinanon has 50% and Khun Sumrith Thanakarnjanasuth the remaining 25%.

[Tommy Jenkins]

Mr Narin Niruttinanon, aged 38, is a director in 4 companies. Narin has not resigned from any of these appointments.

[Royal Lady]

Khunying Sasima has purchased 25% of the club,
Khun Narin Niruttinanon has 50% and Khun Sumrith Thanakarnjanasuth the remaining 25%.

Cheers - just noticed the other 25%. If I owned any percentage I reckon I'd want someone with a bigger % to actually say or do something - or I'd be tempted to say something myself to the fans - surely someone on the board has to address this issue this week?

[Tommy Jenkins]

Directorship's of the four companies are :


GPT UK Investment Co. Ltd
Number 7 (5th Floor), Old Park Lane London W1K 1QR

RFC Bearwood Limited
1 London Street Reading RG1 4QW


Reading Women's Football Club Limited Madejski Stadium


The Reading Football Club Limited Madejski Stadium,

[Lower West]

Why also if the Thias cleared the debt and we sold some of our best players are we still getting into heavy debt , which by all accounts mean Mr Hammond cant really do his job and get players in. How the hell do we break this cycle without going down ?

Would it matter if we did? Real supporters watch their team whatever the league they pay in. Too many plastics that moan and groan. Then turn their backs when results don't go well. I'd prefer a soundly run club than one that potentially could go bust. Reading are suffering now. However I believe it's for the good. As other clubs are punching well above their weight. With only problems heading their way down the road.

[Tommy Jenkins]

I think it would absolutely matter if we went down lowerwest, Do you remember how hard it was getting up ??

Fan bases takes years to build up

But loose a big slice of them in a matter of months

[STAR Liaison]

Just a couple of points of clarification as a few posters have read things into our previous post that weren't there:
- our understanding is that the Thais have cleared the major external debts (eg Vibrac etc) - but that is not to say there isn't debt, it just much more under Thai control
- at least two more of the Thais besides Samrit have significant football experience
- it does not follow that any breach of FFP leads to a £50m fine - that appears to be just QPR's situation. Whatever the risk it's not one the owners want to take - and frankly a stance we support given STAR's published views on football governance and financial responsibility
- sure we got hammered on Saturday, TJ, and results and performances have been far from top notch for the last couple of months but overall we're not in as terrible situation, to use TJ's words, overall as a club as we were 6 months ago. Of course I'm not enjoying the games much either at the moment

[Tommy Jenkins]

Thanks for your balanced view once again Starliaison, it is very much appreciated.

Since I started this post on Friday I have learnt a lot about the Thai owners and what appears to be going on or not on.
There is at least a further 50% info to come out to really colour in the picture, but progress has been made.

But the point is, it took a lot of digging around and exploring the information from various resources

Why couldn't this have been communicated to the fans, that way there is no vacuum of negativity to feed off from the mass ranks who really care for our club.

[P!ssed Off]

@starliason

I'm all for sensible spending.
But let's not exaggerate the influence/severity of the FFP regulations.

Our hands really aren't tied. If it was necessary to make signings to avoid relegation, then of course we would.
Cost of relegation > FFP sanctions.

As it stands we have a squad with more than enough quality to avoid relegation. Little would be gained in going over the FFP limit.

[melonhead]

Thank you very much Starliaison.



Why also if the Thias cleared the debt and we sold some of our best players are we still getting into heavy debt ,

!

is it cos we run at a constant repeated yearly loss, and always have/
they can pay off as many debts as they like, its not going to stop there being another 5-10 million pound more debt every time a new season starts/ends

[SPARTA]

It is not clear why the club is running at a loss? Surely every Champ club is running at a loss - and ones relegated from the Prem recently even more so, so there's no really no need for any grand statement on that. It's quite simple - we're spending more (on wages) than we're bringing in ....

So the bigger picture is , where's the strategy from the new owners to address this ??

Not buy more expensive players and wait for contracts of the higher earners we can't sell to expire.

It's not rocket science.

While the MANAGER takes it in the neck for team underperforming... But yes, you're right. The Manager though can't win!!

[Forbury Lion]

The response from STAR is deafening

I thought STAR represented our supporters??

STAR represent STAR members..... Are you a STAR member? I'm not, so I can't really criticise them.

[STAR Liaison]

The response from STAR is deafening

I thought STAR represented our supporters??

STAR represent STAR members..... Are you a STAR member? I'm not, so I can't really criticise them.

Thanks for the get-out Forbes but STAR does aim to represent the interests of all Reading fans.

Obviously as a member organisation we're more able, and willing, to take into account the views and wishes of our members. But we never forget today's non-member is tomorrow's member and all that.

[Forbury Lion]

But we never forget today's non-member is tomorrow's member and all that.

I'm tempted to join this year based on this thread alone, some insightful and useful communications from STAR who for a change appear to be proactively challenging as much as they can rather than being reactive yes men to the clubs wishes.

[Dick Habbin's hairdo]

So the major 50 percent shareholder has had other things on his mind the last few weeks - like the US $1.5 billion takeover of Bumble Bee Seafoods. http://www.bbc.com/news/business-30544592

And there's this financial (or fonancial) statement regarding the acquisition of MW Brands from 2010 but page 17 http://www.set.or.th/set/newsdetails.do;jsessionid=2C1CB34991919840BD618C0524DB8317?type=R&time=1282183950000&filename=dat%2Fprsnews%2Fnews%2F0450NWS190820100912950649E.txt&source=TUF&headline=Opinion+of+the+Independent+Fonancial+Advisor&symbol=TUF&localeoverriding=yes&country=TH&language=t gives some interesting insight into the extent of the shareholding of the Niruttinanon family in TUF.

My guess is that GPT Investments is the family investment business of the Niruttinanon family with Narin heading it up - and Samrit is his stalking horse, hence his flouncing on FaceyB.

[PieEater]

Lol at that BBC article, $1.5bn does not equal £96m FFS.

[Forbury Lion]

Lol at that BBC article, $1.5bn does not equal £96m FFS.

Yep, £958m if the bn is a thousand million - Just googled as I remember that US was different to UK.

However, In British English, a billion used to be equivalent to a million million (i.e. 1,000,000,000,000), while in American English it has always equated to a thousand million (i.e. 1,000,000,000). British English has now adopted the American figure, though, so that a billion equals a thousand million in both varieties of English.

[Tommy Jenkins]

Yes agree with you Forbury Lion , I am also impressed with STARS response to the thread I set up.

How does one become a member ?