All debt repaid before investment...?

[stringjunior]

I hadn't seen this anywhere else in all the talk of our new investor (might be old news and I just missed it), but found this article on a link from newsnow.net. Interesting.....

"The prince told AFP he bought the stake after the South Yorkshire club cleared its debt, brushing aside claims about a debt burden awaiting him.

"I demanded as a condition before I bought half the shares of the club that all debt be paid, and that is exactly what happened," he said.

"This makes our mission to rise to higher leagues easier," he added.

Full item here: http://sports.ndtv.com/football/news/213598-saudi-prince-eyes-profit-in-sheffield-united

 

[SotonBlade]

Maybe thats what McCabe has done as part of the deal. If so, and i expect we'll find out on Saturday, then well done McCabe

 

[judge]

He thinks were in lg 2

 

[Oreyt]

That's friggin' great if true.

 

[Pollingtonblade]

Maybe thats what McCabe has done as part of the deal. If so, and i expect we'll find out on Saturday, then well done McCabe

How will we find out Saturday?

 

[judge]

How will we find out Saturday?

through the medium of modern dance

 

[SotonBlade]

How will we find out Saturday?

Theres a press conference at the Lane before the Rotherham game

 

[Pollingtonblade]

Theres a press conference at the Lane before the Rotherham game

I didn't know that whats it for?

 

[SotonBlade]

More about the investment. The prince will be in attendance

 

[Bladey]

If this is true, it's awesome news....Being optimistic, I want to say this can only be good for Sheffield United, but the blade in me still says, "What's the catch!?".

 

[UnitedBlade]

This wouldn't surprise me at all and would also maybe explain the timing.

From memory in the last accounts, there were two categories of loans:
- £8.5M owed to Santander which should have matched the West Ham Tevez payments: the last payment from West Ham was supposed to be August and if it was 31 August, that may be why the new deal didn't start until this week ?
- there were approximately £20M of loans from McCabe companies. If he's written those off then we should be extremely happy about this

So we know KM has converted £17.5M to equity previously, and if he has written off another sizeable amount, then that is tremendous news.

Also it may well point to the risk / reward balance
- KM writes off debt (but keeps the Lane ringfenced in SU plc of course !)
- Prince Blade puts in the new money
- share benefit 50 / 50 if they achieve PL status

It's simple this football "model" business.

Now get us some f'ing strikers

 

[Kev Gee]

Im reading conflicting reports of this guys 'actual' wealth.

So is he a Billionaire or not?

 

[Chris Wood]

Im reading conflicting reports of this guys 'actual' wealth.

So is he a Billionaire or not?

Have you ever employed a tax 'avoidance' advisor?

 

[UnitedBlade]

Im reading conflicting reports of this guys 'actual' wealth.

So is he a Billionaire or not?

From what I've seen on the web and from reading other posts, I don't think he is a billionaire.

He owns 50% of Saudi Paper and I think that is currently valued at about £240M ie he's worth at least £120M.

Not sure if he has bought his Beverley Hills house from floating the company (that's worth £14M).

The thing is, he'll probably have extra stuff tucked away in Trusts.

He is at least as wealthy as McCabe and I bet he knows more billionaires than we do .

He might be able to tap others up

 

[Bladey]

Im reading conflicting reports of this guys 'actual' wealth.

So is he a Billionaire or not?

His family's total wealth is about 18-20Billion, he, personally is worth about 100Million, though I'm not sure if he has access to his family's wealth.

 

[BladeFisher]

"I aim to make profit through this investment. That is why I went for a League Two club," he said.

This is the key phrase. So when we are in the Prem League, who does he sell to? Maybe that is the catch.

 

[Kev Gee]

Yeah I thought that even if he isn't 'that' rich. He could quite easily find other saudis with deeper pockets than him. What a masterstroke by McCabe.

 

[Sothall_Blade]

This wouldn't surprise me at all and would also maybe explain the timing.

From memory in the last accounts, there were two categories of loans:
- £8.5M owed to Santander which should have matched the West Ham Tevez payments: the last payment from West Ham was supposed to be August and if it was 31 August, that may be why the new deal didn't start until this week ?
- there were approximately £20M of loans from McCabe companies. If he's written those off then we should be extremely happy about this

So we know KM has converted £17.5M to equity previously, and if he has written off another sizeable amount, then that is tremendous news.

Also it may well point to the risk / reward balance
- KM writes off debt (but keeps the Lane ringfenced in SU plc of course !)
- Prince Blade puts in the new money
- share benefit 50 / 50 if they achieve PL status

It's simple this football "model" business.

Now get us some f'ing strikers

He could just mean that the "external" debt to Santander has been repaid. Which as you say ties in with the odd timing of the new investment.

If KM has actually written off his own debt as well then he has had a blinding week and gone a long way to redeeming himself. Let's hope so.

 

[gavtheblade]

These saudi`s arnt daft.
I think weve done good buisness here.
They are rich for a reason-through good buisness tenure.
Writing of debt is an excellent way of moving forward in anyones eyes,but the fact that prince dave has re-iterated that he wanted the debt removing as part of the deal makes excellent sense.

 

[SwissBlade]

Does this guy own any racing camels...

The guy doesn't need to be a billionaire, just needs a few quid to chuck at transfers and get us out of this division

 

[SwissBlade]

Does this guy own any racing camels...

The guy doesn't need to be a billionaire, just needs a few quid to chuck at transfers and get us out of this division

 

[Toronto Blade]

The Saudi Royal Family is the world's richest family it controls Saudi Arabia's oil industry valued in the trillions.
I think that the Prince has a few pennies to rub together.

 

[grafikhaus]

Maybe thats what McCabe has done as part of the deal. If so, and i expect we'll find out on Saturday, then well done McCabe

Of course he could have been even cleverer and had all the debts with Co-op. I hear they write debts off for certain clubs.

 

[SotonBlade]

Does this guy own any racing camels...

The guy doesn't need to be a billionaire, just needs a few quid to chuck at transfers and get us out of this division

Then give his stake in the club to his grandfather as a gift when we reach the Premier League?

 

[SotonBlade]

Apparently so according to this article!

http://sports.ndtv.com/football/news/213598-saudi-prince-eyes-profit-in-sheffield-united

A Saudi prince who bought a 50 percent stake in Sheffield United said Thursday he aims to profit through pushing the now third-tier English football club up to the Premier League.

"This is the best way to make profit if the club rises to League One and then the premiership," said Prince Abdullah bin Mosaad following the announcement of his acquisition.

The prince told AFP he bought the stake after the South Yorkshire club cleared its debt, brushing aside claims about a debt burden awaiting him.

"I demanded as a condition before I bought half the shares of the club that all debt be paid, and that is exactly what happened," he said.

"This makes our mission to rise to higher leagues easier," he added.

The Independent said on Tuesday that Prince Abdullah paid only £1 for his stake in Sheffield United, but he is expected to spend substantially more.

Prince Abdullah is the first Saudi royal investor in English football clubs.

"I aim to make profit through this investment. That is why I went for a League Two club," he said, comparing his venture with other Gulf acquisitions of stakes in top European clubs.

 

[blade too long]

we never really were in debt , was just a tax dodge

 

[Kev Gee]

Abit scary how he thinks were LEAGUE 2?
Still if we DO make it into the Prem again. Then hes unto a nice little earner.

 

[Balham]

we never really were in debt , was just a tax dodge

We were in debt as we had borrowed from a benefactor. The difference to a standard bank/market loan was that McCabe was highly unlikely to ever receive a full return.

You can't just pour money into a company; you have to do it through debt or equity. McCabe, to his credit, has done both.

Abit scary how he thinks were LEAGUE 2?

I think that's a bit of a red herring aimed at simplifying the English league structure to those who don't know anything beyond the premiership - hence the reference to "rising to League One then the Premiership". I'd struggle to explain why the leagues go Premiership -> Championship -> League One -> League Two to an outsider.

 

[dublin 10 blade]

Can't be true only the pigs are debt free , according to the brown star , and pigs boards .{bladesmad } also was'nt that the reason merlin the magican bought them , was'nt it to get a world cup stadium built for nought , then flog them off , but fifa ruined his evil plans and now he's stuck with the shithole.

 

[Oreyt]

Premiership -> Championship -> League One -> League Two to an outsider.

I'm hoping at some point they rename league two ''THE STRATA OF IMPENDING DOOM'' so that any notion of sequence is completely lost.