[overseas baggie]

It looks like JP has managed to sell us to the one Chinese businessman who has no money to invest in the club, hence the statement emphasising continuity. It appears more than disappointing.

The new owner used to be a director in Palm, which is currently is valued at 1.8bn but last year had a turnover of £500m and a profit of just £7m - probably less than our football club made. He stepped down from Palm in 2014 but still has a seat on some subsidiary boards. He level of ownership of Palm to begin with has not been confirmed and a company making £7m a year doesn't have much clout.

If you look at the official statement on the wba site you will see that the new owner owns 59% and a separate investment group has taken the remainder so he didn't have enough cash to fund the purchase himself. Rumoured to be £200m on here by baggie38. The official statement confirms he has enough cash reserves to fund that, I.e more than £118m so I presume he has about £150m in the bank or did have before £118m was paid to Peace. The remaining £82m is from an investment group who we know nothing about. No evidence they have any clout or sizeable investments either. Presumably they will want a return / profit from the club in the long run.

The outcome appears
- new owner to remain based in China
- John Williams to run club
- No additional money to be invested in squad or facilities

In short our income hasn't changed, we are stuck with the PL tv money although in the long run we might get more commercial money from China. The new owner has talked about putting our logo on football community facilities in Eco towns that Palm is building in China...am I supposed to be excited and content with this?

All in the context of wolves being bought out by multi-billionaires. They have Walmart  and we have the equivalent of the ice cream seller. Thanks Jeremy.

So if your happy with the status quo and punching above our weight as a small club then you should be happy with the takeover, more of the same is promised. If you wanted a mega rich owner and grand ambition then that dream has died.

A totally naive post.

You have no idea what other wealth he has outside of what was generated by Palm.  You have no idea what wealth the other investors have got. 

I do not believe for one moment that JP would have sold to a buyer which has no access to funds to invest more funding into the group.

[Laurie Cunningham]

It looks like JP has managed to sell us to the one Chinese businessman who has no money to invest in the club, hence the statement emphasising continuity. It appears more than disappointing.

The new owner used to be a director in Palm, which is currently is valued at 1.8bn but last year had a turnover of £500m and a profit of just £7m - probably less than our football club made. He stepped down from Palm in 2014 but still has a seat on some subsidiary boards. He level of ownership of Palm to begin with has not been confirmed and a company making £7m a year doesn't have much clout.

If you look at the official statement on the wba site you will see that the new owner owns 59% and a separate investment group has taken the remainder so he didn't have enough cash to fund the purchase himself. Rumoured to be £200m on here by baggie38. The official statement confirms he has enough cash reserves to fund that, I.e more than £118m so I presume he has about £150m in the bank or did have before £118m was paid to Peace. The remaining £82m is from an investment group who we know nothing about. No evidence they have any clout or sizeable investments either. Presumably they will want a return / profit from the club in the long run.

The outcome appears
- new owner to remain based in China
- John Williams to run club
- No additional money to be invested in squad or facilities

In short our income hasn't changed, we are stuck with the PL tv money although in the long run we might get more commercial money from China. The new owner has talked about putting our logo on football community facilities in Eco towns that Palm is building in China...am I supposed to be excited and content with this?

All in the context of wolves being bought out by multi-billionaires. They have Walmart  and we have the equivalent of the ice cream seller. Thanks Jeremy.

So if your happy with the status quo and punching above our weight as a small club then you should be happy with the takeover, more of the same is promised. If you wanted a mega rich owner and grand ambition then that dream has died.

Very well said, my thoughts are the same.

[WBAinDEVON]

A totally naive post.

You have no idea what other wealth he has outside of what was generated by Palm.  You have no idea what wealth the other investors have got. 

I do not believe for one moment that JP would have sold to a buyer which has no access to funds to invest more funding into the group.

that we can be assured of. no way would he sell to an ice cream seller as another teams message board described him

[skyclad99]

The outcome appears
- new owner to remain based in China
- John Williams to run club
- No additional money to be invested in squad or facilities

To answer your perceived outcomes;


1. What is the problem with the new owner living in China?
2. What is the problem with John Williams being appointed?
3. Do you know this as a fact? because I don't.......

[Morany]

Free scarf for Palace away and a free drink at Everton at home

What a guy.

Long live Lai

[seteefeet]

To answer your perceived outcomes;


1. What is the problem with the new owner living in China?
2. What is the problem with John Williams being appointed?
3. Do you know this as a fact? because I don't.......

And why spend £200m (or whatever the final figure was) to do nothing?
This group has invested  an awful lot just to buy the club, why on earth would they bother if they didn't have a long term plan? Just because they are not making ridiculous promises "We'll win the World Series in 2 years", does not mean they will not invest. If it wasn't for a dodgy back we would have smashed our transfer record this week, which was apparently sanctioned by the new owners.
This is the most positive news we have had in years. Enjoy it!

[Lloydy]

Mr Lai has said that we will be at The Hawthorns for the Everton game and will buy every fan a drink!

[Avonbaggie]

Mr Lai has said that we will be at The Hawthorns for the Everton game and will buy every fan a drink!

At least he's acknowledging the quality of our football then..

[darbolina]

In his first video he's mentioned he'd look forward to a top half finish asap. That's not very JP and sets a clear market for transfers etc...,,the fact Pulis has never finished top half might worry him personally?

[wbatillidie]

Prof Simon Chadwick ‏@Prof_Chadwick  2h2 hours ago Bristol, England
New West Brom owner: Guochuan Lai.
Suspect he's frontman for larger/wealthier group of investors
On his own more Tony Xia than Wang Jianlin

Not sure who this guy is but seems to know what he's talking about.

[RogerBadoo]

Not wishing to be negative because I think the club does need new ideas and new management (both at executive and football level) - this new owner is not mega-rich. He is certainly very wealthy but in the pantheon of high-wealth individuals he is not on the list. That may not be a bad thing at all - he is I think committed to growing the club not least because he's probably spent over £100m of his own money and I am sure he not like to see that significantly devalued by relegation.

However the information available from both the club statements and the listing of his old company (Palm) does not indicate that this will be a takeover followed by wild spending resourced externally. Likewise as the company is privately owed it is possible that the purchase could be refinanced and the club saddled with new debt. I think these types of takeovers tend to be opaque. I am of the view that we should not blindly celebrate the takeover until we understand more about what it actually means. I am fairly positive however that we haven't become part of the Billionaire club  just yet. Palm itself would only need to see a small drop in market cap to fall under the 1bn threshold and as its listed he clearly doesn't own all the business.

I think we have got a slightly wealthier version of JP, a good, well respected new Chair and hopefully a controlled and managed next phase in the clubs development. What we haven't got is a sugar daddy like Manchester City or Chelsea.

[Zebidee]

http://www.sportsmole.co.uk/off-the-pitch/west-brom-albion/news/xia-takes-swipe-at-west-brom-wolves-owners_278221.html


Wtf!? I'm pretty sure that more thought went into finding our new owners, than did into theirs

[halifax_baggie]

It looks like JP has managed to sell us to the one Chinese businessman who has no money to invest in the club, hence the statement emphasising continuity. It appears more than disappointing.

The new owner used to be a director in Palm, which is currently is valued at 1.8bn but last year had a turnover of £500m and a profit of just £7m - probably less than our football club made. He stepped down from Palm in 2014 but still has a seat on some subsidiary boards. He level of ownership of Palm to begin with has not been confirmed and a company making £7m a year doesn't have much clout.

If you look at the official statement on the wba site you will see that the new owner owns 59% and a separate investment group has taken the remainder so he didn't have enough cash to fund the purchase himself. Rumoured to be £200m on here by baggie38. The official statement confirms he has enough cash reserves to fund that, I.e more than £118m so I presume he has about £150m in the bank or did have before £118m was paid to Peace. The remaining £82m is from an investment group who we know nothing about. No evidence they have any clout or sizeable investments either. Presumably they will want a return / profit from the club in the long run.

The outcome appears
- new owner to remain based in China
- John Williams to run club
- No additional money to be invested in squad or facilities

In short our income hasn't changed, we are stuck with the PL tv money although in the long run we might get more commercial money from China. The new owner has talked about putting our logo on football community facilities in Eco towns that Palm is building in China...am I supposed to be excited and content with this?

All in the context of wolves being bought out by multi-billionaires. They have Walmart  and we have the equivalent of the ice cream seller. Thanks Jeremy.

So if your happy with the status quo and punching above our weight as a small club then you should be happy with the takeover, more of the same is promised. If you wanted a mega rich owner and grand ambition then that dream has died.

Bet you're a really happy person really as Funeral Directors go, to put it all into perpective, we have a new owner, we don't know his wealth or what they will or will not spend, we don't know their plans for the future, in fact we know nothing positive or negative.

What we know is the club has been sold to a consortiun who could pay whatever Peace was asking - the rest is pure speculation.

I don'tknow how people can be happy, sad or dissapointed a what may or may not happen, you can only make positive actions on things you can control or influence, everything else is a waste of nevous energy

[palmaroy]

In his first video he's mentioned he'd look forward to a top half finish asap. That's not very JP and sets a clear market for transfers etc...,,the fact Pulis has never finished top half might worry him personally?

TP would be well out of his comfort zone

[Zebidee]

If he's a front man for larger and wealthier investors... Does this mean he may have a lot more wealthy available than just what him himself is worth?
Maybe if renames ground or a stand, the other outside investors would find it and put more into the club?

[wba13]

All the Peace hater`s seem to have gone a bit quiet deserves what he gets for keeping club solvent over the last few years.

[skyclad99]

http://www.sportsmole.co.uk/off-the-pitch/west-brom-albion/news/xia-takes-swipe-at-west-brom-wolves-owners_278221.html


Wtf!? I'm pretty sure that more thought went into finding our new owners, than did into theirs

The good doctor appears to be a bit of a loose cannon methinks........

[darbolina]

An absolute guess what Lai might really be thinking   

 I'll put together a fund using the vast wealth of say three or four very rich people. I'll buy a we'll run, solid, stable football club. Then, I'll ensure I have experienced local  true football people / experts running that club whilst I concentrate on building the foundations for that club / business to grow massively in the untapped Chinese market which I know very well.

It's important my new club do well and remain int eh premier league because it's broadcast everywhere these days and the Chinese people and government love the premier leag so I have big support at home.

I already have plenty of money set aside from my mates at the fund to help my new business buy players but I won't tell anyone that cause that would be thick and lead to other clubs ripping me off.

Hopefully the fans will see over time that I'm clever enough and well connected enough to help the club progress from my side, hopefully Williams, Hammond and Pulis will
Look after the football side of things well for me, if not I could always change .

[VANDERLEI]

If he's a front man for larger and wealthier investors... Does this mean he may have a lot more wealthy available than just what him himself is worth?
Maybe if renames ground or a stand, the other outside investors would find it and put more into the club?

It seems that way. Peace wouldn't have sold if the buyers weren't able to take us forward.

[halifax_baggie]

All the Peace hater`s seem to have gone a bit quiet deserves what he gets for keeping club solvent over the last few years.

Don't worry they are already back, complaining that they buyer isn't rich enough and disparaging Peace for not selling to Wanda et al so we could say we have more money then Villa and Wolves who if memory serves me well are in a lower division

[mateinone]

With the recent news that European clubs inflate prices for cash rich Premier League clubs, could this be an attempt to warn those clubs whose players we bid for that we won't be just throwing cash around allover the place?

I mean look at the prices that City payed for players like Jo when they took over. It seemed a great chance for clubs to charge an arm and a leg because City had cash.

I am not for even a second suggesting that the funds we will have will come even close to that sort of money and yes I was extremely underwhelmed to find we had an investor who appeared to want to maintain the status quo..

But another season like last year and we will go done, so I think we will seriously invest in come players and we might even get 1-2 really good footballers join, because the owners would take a huge hit if they were to be relegated.

We might even sign another 5-6 defenders with almost a month left of the TM

[kris_boing]

I for one will be chuffed that the club is run the same way as it has been but with owners/investors slightly deeper pockets that Peace had.

Lets just wait and see what happens in this transfer window.  A signal of intent will be the first few signings and what happens with Pulis.

[Foster#1]

He's only 42 as well, he could be loaded within years all we know

[paulosull]

Sports development group.

is there any chance that Wanda are involved with sports group as I think could be wrong that they are connected to biggest club in Chinese league?

[overseas baggie]

An absolute guess what Lai might really be thinking   

 I'll put together a fund using the vast wealth of say three or four very rich people. I'll buy a we'll run, solid, stable football club. Then, I'll ensure I have experienced local  true football people / experts running that club whilst I concentrate on building the foundations for that club / business to grow massively in the untapped Chinese market which I know very well.

It's important my new club do well and remain int eh premier league because it's broadcast everywhere these days and the Chinese people and government love the premier leag so I have big support at home.

I already have plenty of money set aside from my mates at the fund to help my new business buy players but I won't tell anyone that cause that would be thick and lead to other clubs ripping me off.

Hopefully the fans will see over time that I'm clever enough and well connected enough to help the club progress from my side, hopefully Williams, Hammond and Pulis will
Look after the football side of things well for me, if not I could always change .

Let's hope you are very close with that analysis.  You may well be!