Ownership
Aug 1st, 2010 | By KevB8ll | Category: Articles by almajir, Blues NewsOnce again almajir has produced an article. This time he returns his gaze to the Blues, or more specifically, the man at the top. It was 1st published on his blog here. We have permission to re-publish his article.
Whilst the tour by Birmingham City to Hong Kong and the Peoples Republic of China has helped to raise some of the veils of mystery that surround our Chinese owner, Carson Yeung, I have to admit I’m still intrigued by just how much we don’t know about them.
Trying to research Carson Yeung and his band of merry men is problematic however. The language barrier is a huge one; my knowledge of Mandarin Chinese stretches to being able to say “Hi”, “How are you” and “Thanks”, and as it’s mostly written in traditional Chinese characters it’s not like I can even puzzle out what the words are. Then there is the phenomenon known as the “Great Firewall of China” – the whole deal of censorship on stuff coming into and out of the PRC.
What I’m left with is puzzling out announcements that are made by the club’s parent company Birmingham International Holdings (formerly Grandtop) to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. As the parent company is a publicly listed company, they’re bound by the rules of the Securities and Futures Commission in Hong Kong, and have to announce in public when they are undertaking various activities. Unfortunately, whilst I studied Economics at college that was a long time ago, and I’m not an expert on what these announcements mean. However, I will endeavour to do my best to find out what’s going on and report it here.
One of the most interesting things that have happened in the last couple of weeks is Mr Yeung has been fined by the SFC. It appears that he’s made some sort of technical error in not disclosing his financial interest in something within an allotted timeframe. It can’t really have been that serious, as the total fines and costs come to just under HK$34000, which is just under £2800. Chicken feed to a man who has an £8million pad in HK he can show to visiting reporters.
Other than that, the only other recent news it that the company are again putting off the announcement with regards to the acquisition of the company of another shell company called Peace International Creation Ltd, due to finalisation of accountants reports and whatnot. The original details are reported here by Forbes, and it makes mention that the controlling stake of Birmingham International Holdings will be moved to two unknown companies in the British Virgin Islands. What this means I am entirely not sure, although it doesn’t help destroy the paranoia that Carson Yeung is a front man for a group of shadowy Chinese investors.
As you can see, it’s not the easiest thing to penetrate and I can only hope that with further study can the opaqueness of the current ownership structure of Birmingham City can become a little more transparent. I should make it known I think that so far, the new board have done okay; talking to staff at the club things appear to be a lot better than they were under the previous incumbents. Hopefully, things will stay that way for a while yet into the future.
almajir
All we know about Carson Yeung is the fact that he was formerly a hairdresser and then ‘disappeared’ for a few years before making his money in penny stocks. It would be interesting to know how much he is really worth because I find it odd that a man who is the chairman of Birmingham International Holdings formerly called Grandtop International would have an £8m pound home when the company’s turnover is just £1m.
On a general note where has the communication gone and what about the £80m that was originally promised? We’ve so far only brought in Ben Foster and Nikola Zigic who cost £4m, and £6m respectively. Because of our 9th place finish last year we picked up £10m in prize money and so technically they’ve spent nothing this Summer.
I thought they had brought Blues’ to bring us onto the ‘next level’ improving the infrastructure, and the squad they said they would at the start but a year later they’ve done hardly anything. I don’t want to be miserable because we’ve had a fantastic season and I think this season can be just as good. I think it’s our best chance for a long time of finishing above Villa and being the top team in the Midlands once again. But in order to do that we do need some investment in the squad ASAP this time last season our business was pretty much concluded.
I thnk it’s massively unfair to say that they’ve hardly done anything.
For instance, on the medical side of things we now have a club doctor, and we’ve invested heavily in developing the sports science of things – I don’t think the lack of injuries last year was down to luck.
We’ve spent 12mil plus in the close season already; not including wages, signing on fees and whatnot – and we’re looking to spend more. I really believe we’re making the investment we can, it’s just taking time because other clubs aren’t selling – if you look across the country not many clubs are buying right now either.
As for the £80mil, that was for the birds. Only a fool would expect us to really spend that sort of money – it was a soundbite – up to £40 mil in each transfer window, and it was to include wages etc. If we really spent that much money we’d end up like Pompey.
Whilst I think we need to be cautious, I really believe some fans need a reality check – things are going well right now, to say they’ve done nothing is completely disingenuous.
Re NDH92. We do seem to have some of the most shortsighted & unrealistic few who won’t give any credit to anyone who’s in charge. If I were something to do with Grandtop & I read something like this rubbish,I would begin to wonder who I was doing it all for. The owners are doing all right so far,in fact more than all right; my only concern is the lack of any knowledge of where the money is actually coming from.But please keep up the good work & ignore the whingers.
I’d say that’s more to do with McLeish than the board bringing in a sports science team, and a club doctor. This is something that other clubs have had for years. I was referring to more significant things like updating training facilities, paying a record transfer fee. There really are some people that need to learn to accept others opinions.
Hang on a minute Almajir where are you getting £12m + from? They’ve spent £10m this summer on Zigic and Foster bringing in Valles on a free. These players have been brought in as direct replacements of players that we’ve lost – Hart and Chucho we have not been able to make any ‘enhancements’ to the squad so far. We have not been able to improve it. Maybe promising £80m was ridiculous but they’ve not given Alex even a quarter of that amount of money. The investment so far has been minimal. We’ve just come back from China which was a complete waste of time where we could have gone to Austria for a week where we would have had an extra week to conclude business. So far since the new owners have come in it just feels like we’ve been on a roller coaster. Everything takes a ridiculous amount of time to get done. Take Alex’s contract as an example. The communication between the board and not just with the fans but with the BCFC employers as well has been atrocious. Since the new board have come in I’ve experienced a lot of unprofessionalism from the BCFC staff. Is this because they don’t have anyone standing over them any more? Used to have Brady she went, Dunford came in for a few months then left. There just seems to be no authority. It looks like Alex is getting fed up as well with the state of play judging from media reports. I hope the board prove me wrong but to do that they have to invest heavily at least £20m to take us to the next level. If you think the board are doing ‘fine’ then you are not being realistic for a club of our magnitude. After all these years this club deserves better it deserves to be where Villa are!
£6m + £6m = £12million