Faz

We still won’t get penalties at Old Trafford, that much is certain.......

Lee Todd

I’ve seen thousands of well struck shots balloon high and wide in my time.

Would not be surprised to see him go out on loan.

How much money did Gao trouser before Lander was publicly listed? How much money did Gao trouser when Lander went public? What percentage of Lander was listed when it went public? What percentage of Lander does he currently own? What is the value of his non-China assets? I lay awake at night wondering about such things

Moo-sa HTH

What is your point? Or are you just thinking out loud??

In short, you don’t know his personal wealth, but are ready to lay a future crime at his door. Of course you may be proved right in time.

Great. My Cantonese is a bit rusty.

Great. So he transferred £184m to the uk holding co, so his loan is £128m potentially. How do you know he borrowed 70% May I ask? Thanks

Thank you. I’m genuinely interested to know where this is recorded.

Regarding para 1, you are correct I so far as there is nothing to stop him transferring debt, or charging management fees to the football club to cover his personal commitment. The fact is he had not done that as of the June 2018 accounts. With regard to para 2, what has the market cap of Lander in China got to do with anything, his personal wealth is the only thing of concern, and all we know is he didn’t have £200m in cash down the back of the sofa. Also, who says he borrowed £200m? It appears he borrowed some money, but most deals of this nature will be leveraged to some extent. I do have doubts about Mr Gao, but mostly caused by his opaque ambition for the club, and that is just gut feel really. Once he does the financial engineering he has been accused of doing, I’ll be with you.

Fonte was great for us, but was getting found out towards the end of his time. This was confirmed by his time at WHU. The French League is a very different proposition (try watching it!), as indeed is International football. Good old Anders went on to have an extended career at both domestic and international level after leaving too.

Sorry, but I do deal with finance on a daily basis, and you’re mistaken and a few points. The assets of SFC Ltd or St Mary’s Stadium Ltd cannot just be charged without registration at Companies House - or rather they can, but the charge is invalid if not registered within 28 days. You appear to have been confused by the consolidated accounts. No loan has been transferred to the detriment of SFC Ltd.

Look, I, not an accountant and neither, I suspect, are you. I think we would all like to know whether what you say is correct or not. The Holding Company acquired 100% of St Mary’s Football Group Ltd. Southampton Football Club Ltd is a subsidiary of St Mary’s Football Club, it’s not possible to tell from the public record what percentage of the shares in the football club is owned by St Mary’s Football Group Ltd, although it was widely reported the Gao purchased 80%. When looking at the Lander Sports holding company, have you considered the the accounts filed are consolidated group accounts? The only loan I can see in the football club accounts is one which was subsequently transferred to the holding company and converted to equity - is that the £20m loan you mean? Fine, don’t provide links, but just tell us all please what assets of SFC are charged to support the HK company loan. Also, I don’t doubt there is a loan, but can you confirm the HK company accounts show bank loans (ie not shareholder loans) of £200m as you stated previously?

You have proved precisely nothing. Just because £184m was transferred to purchase 80% (not 100% as you state) of the share capital does not mean £184m was borrowed. It was always known Gao himself is not a Director (his daughter is). Please advise what charges and liens are registered against the HK company and how they relate to SFC. I think we’ll all appreciate links and details rather than conjecture.

It’s £18,720,000

You could, but no way would it support a £200m loan. Also there are currently no charges registered against the stadium company. I was mistaken above, as there is a charge against SFC Ltd registered by McQuarie - as we have been doing for the last 3 years - to support the cash flow loan. Gao may well have charged shares in support of his loan, but as the ultimate ownership vests in a BVI entity there is no way of knowing.

1. Who says Gao has a £200m loan? what evidence do you have the Club assets secure any such loan - certainly there is nothing registered at companies house against either Southampton Football Club ltd, nor St Mary’s Stadium Ltd, the two principle trading businesses. 2. What evidence do you have that the club is paying interest either directly or indirectly on any Goa loan? Nothing in the June 2018 accounts suggest this is currently the case. 3. There is no evidence in the 2018 accounts of any lien against future income. You may be proved right in due course, what do I know?

Isn’t the point that we are pretty much up against the wages cap? You can argue that we have given vastly inflated contracts when they are/were not deserved, but ultimately it doesn’t matter if the owner puts in £50m if we can’t pay he wages without making losses which aren’t sustainable or desirable in the longer term.

Ditto

I work in Commercial Finance, and your description is certainly not the only way this deal could have been structured. And the comparison to a house purchase is also not valid. HTH.

He should have stuck to his guns, like Zlatan.

Made up numbers and made up facts - it’s a good story, but just a story. I’m neither pro, nor anti GAO. We’ve struck lucky with just one owner in the time I’ve been supporting Saints, and even with Marcus no-one knows what his attitude to spending would have been once we reached the promised land of the PL.

How would we know?