Rumours of takeover/investment interest

The Liebherrs have given me the best football team and league position year on year I've had in my time supporting Saints. I doubt anyone could do more and I hope it continues.

The Liebherrs have given me the best football team and league position year on year I've had in my time supporting Saints. I doubt anyone could do more and I hope it continues.

Well said. Grass not always greener.

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Are Alpine & Dalek a Chuckle Brothers tribute act ?

City's sanction was on the UEFA FFP regulations, not the Premier League ones, which are very different. As far as I'm aware, nobody's managed to breach the Premier League FFP thresholds yet to put any potential sanctions to the test.

The EPL FFP rules are very lenient. You can overspend by 35 million pounds a year. What that means is that a club who has no intention of playing in Europe could outspend the rest, but to what point.

I did not read every post in this thread so I apologize if someone else has already posted this link.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2016/11/02/southampton-in-talks-with-chinese-firm-lander-sports-development/

Wilson has always had good sources inside the club so this paragraph seems significant to me:

"A deal of £200 million has been mooted, but Liebherr is said to be keen to find out more about Lander’s intentions before considering selling or even simply diluting her stake."

This suggests that she would not want to sell us to an asset stripper and might simply be looking at getting a minority investor. That might be a way to fund a stadium expansion, the rest of the new training facilities, and other improvements. This is not a way to spend more money on players because FFP limits that too much for additional money to be that significant--a new owner could kick in maybe 10 to 15 million more pounds a year but aside from the money that is spent on the Youth program, we would have to lose the money so that the input is covering actual losses under FFP accounting.

Any fan who want to see the back of Liebherr is a dinlo, as we say down here.

Any fan who want to see the back of Liebherr is a dinlo, as we say down here.

I think we need new investment though. Last summers transfer dealings was worrying tbh.

I think we need new investment though. Last summers transfer dealings was worrying tbh.

No they weren't. Hoj, Redmond and Bouful all look to be good signings to me.

I think we need new investment though. Last summers transfer dealings was worrying tbh.

FFS!

I think we need new investment though. Last summers transfer dealings was worrying tbh.

TBF I think your view should have you worrying about your understanding of football...

ls, we have never seen how Pied fits in, is he better than Martina, serious injury before we had the chance to him play.

In my humble opinion things are very, VERY good right now. Best not to rock the boat. If it ain't broke don't fix it. What have big money transfers done for Man Utd so far this season?

Seeing Roy Hodgeson sitting in the Directors box behind Ralph last night leaves me nervous that he might be involved with Lander Development. Would hate to see us ha ING him involved with development or the Academy

Definitely Roy is a big pal of Les. Worrying

Alpine, I am certain you are right. I think this is the opening gambit for a sale of the club.

Is Norwich somewhere in the Alps?

One thing that may be worthy of consideration is the perceived value of the club.

How does £200m rank against the estimated value of other clubs of similar size?

Presumably if this figure was reached it would leave the Liebherr family with a net 'profit' of around £150m assuming their investment has increased beyond the initial purchase price.

However it could be argued that the playing squad has a value north of £150m and there are other assets to consider including the stadium and training ground.

Perhaps others with more experience in valuing businesses might have useful contributions to make.

btw I agree with the majority that I hope Kat and family continue to run the club perhaps with the prospect of an additional capital injection but, as ever, we have to be careful what we wish for

Not heard anything direct on grapevine at all about the prospect of a full takeover of SFC. What I have heard fairly frequently over the past few months from trusted senior practitioners in the sector (not the club) is that 'interested parties' are looking to buy up the land that abuts the stadium, including that on to the river. This is in a relatively advanced state. It could we be that Lander has been approached as a development partner to enable this to happen in partnership with the club, perhaps for a stake. Two and two together to make four, that's all, but it sounds feasible. That's my tuppence.

One thing that may be worthy of consideration is the perceived value of the club.

 

How does £200m rank against the estimated value of other clubs of similar size?

 

Presumably if this figure was reached it would leave the Liebherr family with a net 'profit' of around £150m assuming their investment has increased beyond the initial purchase price.

 

However it could be argued that the playing squad has a value north of £150m and there are other assets to consider including the stadium and training ground.

 

Perhaps others with more experience in valuing businesses might have useful contributions to make.

When selling a club players count as employees, not assets which increase the value of the business. It is misleading to think how much in total we could get if we sold every player is part of the value of the club, as yes that would easily be more than £200m. Saints have a lot of players in the current transfer market worth £20m+. A half decent Championship season a players are getting £12m valuations, let alone at the level we are at in the top half of the league.

I don't think the cost to build stadium like St Mary's or to develop Staplewood doesn't really matter to their current value. As a new owner can't do anything other than play football at the stadium unless the club buys a new stadium then a lot of St Mary's value is the land it is on rather than the building.

IIRC the club also still have Jackson's Farm as a piece of land which could potentially hold some development value.

From a fans point of view if their is a takeover it is probably better the price is lower, if that means it frees up more of the new owners cash for investment into the club.

Are Alpine & Dalek a Chuckle Brothers tribute act ?

skates

Not heard anything direct on grapevine at all about the prospect of a full takeover of SFC. What I have heard fairly frequently over the past few months from trusted senior practitioners in the sector (not the club) is that 'interested parties' are looking to buy up the land that abuts the stadium, including that on to the river. This is in a relatively advanced state. It could we be that Lander has been approached as a development partner to enable this to happen in partnership with the club, perhaps for a stake. Two and two together to make four, that's all, but it sounds feasible. That's my tuppence.

Something like that would make sense to me.

Seeing Roy Hodgeson sitting in the Directors box behind Ralph last night

Any sign of this chap in the Directors' Box?

Something like that would make sense to me.

Yes interesting post.

As mentioned in the past, it appears that most/all of the land along the Itchen river frontage, adjacent to the stadium is owned by the City Council and leased to a number of businesses (primarily aggregate companies who bring in their sea dredged products by sea) on long term leases.

It has long been the objective of the City Council to 'gentrify' the waterfront and presumably they reclaimed the old Town Depot area by the Itchen bridge as part of the plan.

Similarly the old TVS building site is now being developed for housing.

Interestingly Philip Hammond, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, was in Southampton last week giving his support for port owners (ABP) plans to have another go at expanding the port area at Dibden Bay.

Last time ABP tried this, focussing on a big container terminal, they failed but this time their plans are likely to include facilities to store cars and aggregate which may be more acceptable to local residents especially if the Government was prepared to assist with improving road and rail access to the Waterside.

The relocation idea may be important if plans for HS2 and Heathrow expansion and other transport related projects proceed as these will require lots of building materials.

So you could see a scenario where the aggregate wharves are transferred elsewhere with a bit of a sweetner chucked in and the area vacated turned into a mix of leisure, housing and perhaps some more amenable marine businesses.

People correlate ownership with being able to spend the most money and buy amazing world class players. The most important factor in any club ownership situation before working out how much we can spend on a player is what their intentions are and if they're going to be genuine custodians.

QPR had incredibly wealthy people come into their club, they started thinking they were all that. They had all the wrong intentions. They bought incredibly over priced aging crap and failed spectacularly. They're still failing as well. So it's not just about money. It's about having the owners with the right intentions and a genuine idea - long term - of where they want to see their investment.

We've got the best owners in that regard. They're looking after this club very well and we're in incredibly save hands. Owners with all the money but scewed intentions are not worth a sniff at.

They can plough in as much money as they like but we would still be hindered by FFP unless we are successful by winning trophies very quickly....

People correlate ownership with being able to spend the most money and buy amazing world class players. The most important factor in any club ownership situation before working out how much we can spend on a player is what their intentions are and if they're going to be genuine custodians.

 

QPR had incredibly wealthy people come into their club, they started thinking they were all that. They had all the wrong intentions. They bought incredibly over priced aging crap and failed spectacularly. They're still failing as well. So it's not just about money. It's about having the owners with the right intentions and a genuine idea - long term - of where they want to see their investment.

 

We've got the best owners in that regard. They're looking after this club very well and we're in incredibly save hands. Owners with all the money but scewed intentions are not worth a sniff at.

Very much this. Its one thing having a lot of money to buy a football club, but its another thing knowing how to use that money properly. When you look at what the Liebherr Dynasty has achieved at Saints, in terms of spending but doing so wisely, to get us where we our now is an incredible example of how to run a football club.

A takeover is like rolling a dice

Right now we are a 3 and we could roll a 1 (QPR) but we could roll a 4 (Chelsea) a 5 (Arsenal) or 6 (Man City)

I'd rather attempt to do something great and potentially fail than to attempt to do nothing and succeed

Yes interesting post.

 

As mentioned in the past, it appears that most/all of the land along the Itchen river frontage, adjacent to the stadium is owned by the City Council and leased to a number of businesses (primarily aggregate companies who bring in their sea dredged products by sea) on long term leases.

It has long been the objective of the City Council to 'gentrify' the waterfront and presumably they reclaimed the old Town Depot area by the Itchen bridge as part of the plan.

Similarly the old TVS building site is now being developed for housing.

Interestingly Philip Hammond, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, was in Southampton last week giving his support for port owners (ABP) plans to have another go at expanding the port area at Dibden Bay.

Last time ABP tried this, focussing on a big container terminal, they failed but this time their plans are likely to include facilities to store cars and aggregate which may be more acceptable to local residents especially if the Government was prepared to assist with improving road and rail access to the Waterside.

The relocation idea may be important if plans for HS2 and Heathrow expansion and other transport related projects proceed as these will require lots of building materials.

So you could see a scenario where the aggregate wharves are transferred elsewhere with a bit of a sweetner chucked in and the area vacated turned into a mix of leisure, housing and perhaps some more amenable marine businesses.

I'd say we've got almost the perfect people running us (as far as football clubs are concerned), Markus Liebherr is probably the greatest thing that will have ever happened to SFC and I believe Kat has never had anything but the right intentions to see out her father's wishes. I like it that we never had stupid money thrown at it, just what was needed to get back up through the divisions and stuck to the ideal of being a self-sustaining successful-ish club.

But I would also believe part of the attraction of buying this football club in the first place was the long-term vision to develop it and the surrounding area. The wharves have been on the agenda for many years, they're a goldmine waiting to happen, and I'm sure Cortese would have put that in the package when he reported back to Markus. Those lovely images Matthew Le God posts are from NC's tenure and included redeveloped land all along the waterfront and industrial area down towards the Itchen Bridge. It wouldn't surprise me to see Cortese involved in any potential investment.

I'm more than happy to see the Liebherrs continue but it looks like it will change one way or another.

I will be very disapointed if the Saints were to sell to state backed Chinese money . It could be the begining of the end for real supporters . So many clubs have sold out and very few have happy endings , the Prem has all but sold the soul of English football .

Not heard anything direct on grapevine at all about the prospect of a full takeover of SFC. What I have heard fairly frequently over the past few months from trusted senior practitioners in the sector (not the club) is that 'interested parties' are looking to buy up the land that abuts the stadium, including that on to the river. This is in a relatively advanced state. It could we be that Lander has been approached as a development partner to enable this to happen in partnership with the club, perhaps for a stake. Two and two together to make four, that's all, but it sounds feasible. That's my tuppence.

Interesting, I hope it's this would be good for the club and city if that areas was improved. That would be a win win pretty much, wouldn't rock the boat football side but would provide more commercial income for the club and jobs for the city.

Interesting, I hope it's this would be good for the club and city if that areas was improved. That would be a win win pretty much, wouldn't rock the boat football side but would provide more commercial income for the club and jobs for the city.

Yes, that's how I read the situation. I have known since the summer and have been deliberating whether to post. It could have the effect of strengthening KL's asset rather than relinquishing it, and avert some of the risk associated with development. Watch this space ;-)

I hope Roy Hodgson being in the crowd yesterday is not a sign of who the Chinese want to bring in...

I hope Roy Hodgson being in the crowd yesterday is not a sign of who the Chinese want to bring in...

As far as the Chinese are concerned it's Roy or they walk...

A takeover is like rolling a dice

 

Right now we are a 3 and we could roll a 1 (QPR) but we could roll a 4 (Chelsea) a 5 (Arsenal) or 6 (Man City)

 

I'd rather attempt to do something great and potentially fail than to attempt to do nothing and succeed

Anyone who believes this ridiculous analogy is a simpleton.

It implies the only way to change the status of a club is by gambling on new owners.

Six years prior to beating Inter Milan we were playing Dagenham and Redbridge.

Don't recall many dice being rolled in the intervening years, just good stewardship of our club and steady progression. Why gamble when we can evolve ?

Chomp chomp chomp

Anyone who believes this ridiculous analogy is a simpleton.

 

It implies the only way to change the status of a club is by gambling on new owners.

 

Six years prior to beating Inter Milan we were playing Dagenham and Redbridge.

Don't recall many dice being rolled in the intervening years, just good stewardship of our club and steady progression. Why gamble when we can evolve ?

sacking Pardew after a couple of games when we HAD to get promoted, Sacking Adkins when it looked like he turned a corner halfway through a season for a relative unknown. Selling all of our best players since promotion.

plenty of dice being rolled there.

Chomp chomp chomp

I'd say we've got almost the perfect people running us (as far as football clubs are concerned), Markus Liebherr is probably the greatest thing that will have ever happened to SFC and I believe Kat has never had anything but the right intentions to see out her father's wishes. I like it that we never had stupid money thrown at it, just what was needed to get back up through the divisions and stuck to the ideal of being a self-sustaining successful-ish club.

 

But I would also believe part of the attraction of buying this football club in the first place was the long-term vision to develop it and the surrounding area. The wharves have been on the agenda for many years, they're a goldmine waiting to happen, and I'm sure Cortese would have put that in the package when he reported back to Markus. Those lovely images Matthew Le God posts are from NC's tenure and included redeveloped land all along the waterfront and industrial area down towards the Itchen Bridge. It wouldn't surprise me to see Cortese involved in any potential investment.

 

I'm more than happy to see the Liebherrs continue but it looks like it will change one way or another.

I have it on very good authority that Cortese was in direct discussions on the Itchen waterfront opportunities when he first came to the club

Unfortunately he then seemed to become embroiled in other issues (some good some not so good) so the initial enthusiasm appeared to wane as other matters took priority.

However the possibilities for development remain

Higher

Concern was definitely my response to news of this mooted takeover.

Real hope Liebherr rejects any advances or it is simply a minority investment stake.

Burger bars replaced by noodles bars outside.

Interesting, I hope it's this would be good for the club and city if that areas was improved. That would be a win win pretty much, wouldn't rock the boat football side but would provide more commercial income for the club and jobs for the city.

Yep - that would be something. Seeing what they've done over in Portsmuff (though obviously nothing to do with footie!), and the development around the Olympic Stadium...you'd have to think that an area like the one near the stadium would be very appealing.

But the really big question........where will they put the Monkey-Chicken Zoo?

Where's Jack Schitt when you need him

Is that the son of Noah, brother of Fuller and nephew of Ada?

Burger bars replaced by noodles bars outside.

You might want to patent that joke pal.

Wasn't this Chinese interest rumoured a few months back?

To be honest I would not be surprised if there was some truth to it. Saints are not Kat's baby, she inherited it, she could walk away with a nice tidy profit and not have the hassle anymore of owning a football club.

As someone else pointed out, our chairman has been really quiet this last year after his initial hands on approach, there has also not been much of the promised club transparency which makes me wonder if something is going on.

A Chinese takeover makes me nervous but if Kat does want out what say have we got in the matter.

Burger bars replaced by noodles bars outside.

I've already killed my second born child in anticipation of this takeover.

Chomp chomp chomp

You are starting to repeat yourself and beginning to sound like the local forum idiot. No offence I know you mean well and are one of life's observers but........

You are starting to repeat yourself and beginning to sound like the local forum idiot.

Only "beginning"? I thought I'd achieved that status years ago.

Only "beginning"? I thought I'd achieved that status years ago.

Whenever I read one of your posts it's like I've woken up in some kind of recurring dream world where the same things happen again and again.

Whenever I read one of your posts it's like I've woken up in some kind of recurring dream world where the same things happen again and again.

People actually read my posts? I'd have tried to make them more intellectual if I'd known.

People actually read my posts? I'd have tried to make them more intellectual if I'd known.

5.9

I hope Roy Hodgson being in the crowd yesterday is not a sign of who the Chinese want to bring in...

Probably more to do with being a former manager of Inter Milan tbh.