Potential New Owners

[Stranded]

Apparently close to signing exclusivity with Genevra associates - James Earnshaw

So I''ll ask the naive question - what's the incentive for a Hedge Fund to purchase a League One club?

It's not for community spirit...

The same with anyone buying in, hopefully sell for profit later.

[ayjaydee]

Apparently close to signing exclusivity with Genevra associates - James Earnshaw

So I''ll ask the naive question - what's the incentive for a Hedge Fund to purchase a League One club?

It's not for community spirit...

Uh oh!

https://footballleagueworld.co.uk/significant-reading-fc-takeover-update-emerges-as-consortium-set-to-sign-agreement/

This will not end well.

[WestYorksRoyal]

Apparently close to signing exclusivity with Genevra associates - James Earnshaw

So I''ll ask the naive question - what's the incentive for a Hedge Fund to purchase a League One club?

It's not for community spirit...

Uh oh!

https://footballleagueworld.co.uk/significant-reading-fc-takeover-update-emerges-as-consortium-set-to-sign-agreement/

This will not end well.

If football league world are reporting on this, I'm really interested to know what Carlton Palmer thinks.

[Snowflake Royal]

Apparently close to signing exclusivity with Genevra associates - James Earnshaw

So I''ll ask the naive question - what's the incentive for a Hedge Fund to purchase a League One club?

It's not for community spirit...

The same with anyone buying in, hopefully sell for profit later.

Yeah, and look at it this way. They can't dump that much money into us, because we can't pay any transfer fees for another 18 months or so. So it's a relatively contained expenditure and risk. We're a big L1 club, with Championship facilities and excellent youth players.

Any sort of stability and good club management and we could get back into the Championship in another season or two providing we don't drop into L2 for next season. And once back in the Championship they could definitely sell for a profit.

There are far safer investments. But, they also have hospitality and free schmoozing with lots of other club owners and rich scumbags. etc.

They're almost certainly naive schmucks - most people who buy clubs are, which is why Ashley is such a good draw. We already know he can run a club fairly well, how costly it is and what the risks are.

[Hound]

How may clubs are currently owned by hedge funds?

This one feels a bit like the red bird one, that it’s seeing us a part of a portfolio of clubs across Europe

I guess I can’t see how you’d make loads of money from us, but on tbe other hand not really a money pit at the moment if ran sensibly

We’d be fairly cheap for a reasonably known club in a good location

[WestYorksRoyal]

How may clubs are currently owned by hedge funds?

This one feels a bit like the red bird one, that it’s seeing us a part of a portfolio of clubs across Europe

I guess I can’t see how you’d make loads of money from us, but on tbe other hand not really a money pit at the moment if ran sensibly

We’d be fairly cheap for a reasonably known club in a good location

Difference is Red Bird have experience and a large sport portfolio. From what I can see we'd be Genevra's first investment in any industry.

[Fezza]

How may clubs are currently owned by hedge funds?

This one feels a bit like the red bird one, that it’s seeing us a part of a portfolio of clubs across Europe

I guess I can’t see how you’d make loads of money from us, but on tbe other hand not really a money pit at the moment if ran sensibly

We’d be fairly cheap for a reasonably known club in a good location

Difference is Red Bird have experience and a large sport portfolio. From what I can see we'd be Genevra's first investment in any industry.

Got to start somewhere and a weak L1 team, with potential to grow, would seem a sensible first step.

[Brogue]

they were at some point supposedly interested in buying a minority stake in Man Utd, whether that's to be believed or not I don't know, but if true there must be some money there from their backers

[Sutekh]

Not that Reading would need to worry, but aren't FAs starting to take interest in these sort of owners who amass control of several clubs across loads of different countries. Sure I've heard reports that clubs qualification for European competition may be affected, eg if an organisation owns several european clubs and if, say, they all qualified for the Champions League then UEFA may only grant 1 place in that competition to 1 of those clubs and the others would "miss out".

[Brogue]

Not that Reading would need to worry, but aren't FAs starting to take interest in these sort of owners who amass control of several clubs across loads of different countries. Sure I've heard reports that clubs qualification for European competition may be affected, eg if an organisation owns several european clubs and if, say, they all qualified for the Champions League then UEFA may only grant 1 place in that competition to 1 of those clubs and the others would "miss out".

fingers crossed we don't qualify for the champions league this season then

[From Despair To Where?]

Dare to Dream!!!!!

[Ten Bobsworth]

If its a Fairy Godmother, a Sugar Daddy or Father Christmas you're after, Ken Anderson certainly isn't your man but what he achieved at Bolton in his first two years was actually a minor miracle.

He arrived at Bolton in March 2016 when the club was in free fall and facing a winding up petition from HMRC. The previous owner, Eddie Davies, had spent virtually all his fortune on the club and the previous chairman, Phil Gartside, had recently died of a brain tumour, having been seriously ill for several months.

Davies knew that he had a relatively short life expectancy himself and had been trying to sell the club for several years. He said that he had had around fifty approaches all of whom he considered to be either tyre kickers or wannabe asset strippers.

In the end, between a rock and a hard place, Davies did a deal with what the Bolton News ludicrously dubbed 'the Sports Shield consortium'. The 'consortium' actually comprised of two £1 companies owned respectively by Ken Anderson and Dean Holdsworth. The 'consortium' paid Davies £1 for 95% of the shares, or to put it another way ten bob each.

Holdsworth, promptly appointed himself CEO and signed off on a £4m loan repayable within two weeks at an interest rate of 24% p.a.
Anderson became chairman and recognised (almost certainly before he got involved at all) that BWFC would go nowhere fast without a capable CEO and a new football manager. He lost no time in appointing both which left no room for a Holdsworth sinecure. The outcome was that Bolton achieved promotion back to the Championship in Anderson's first year in charge whilst struggling with (and massively reducing) the overspending on player wages on 'legacy' contracts .

Avoiding relegation in his second year in charge was an even bigger achievement on the money Anderson had available but he did manage to break even by getting Cardiff City to part with £6m for the services of striker, Gary Madine. Madine played all of 26 games for Cardiff, failing to score in any of them.

Anderson's principle objective was to hold the fort whilst trying to find someone to fund BWFC in the longer term. He failed in that, unsurprisingly. Eddie Davies having tried for years to sell the club once again had to come to the club's rescue in September 2018 repaying the loan Holdsworth had landed the club with two and a half years previously. Davies was on holiday at Quinta do Lago with his wife at the time and died within two or three days of making the arrangements. Anderson had managed to negotiate the interest charges down substantially and personally borrowed the nearly £5million cost of the loan repayment from Davies.

In all probability, the £1.5million that Anderson introduced into the club in the months following Davies' death was Davies money as well.

[Ten Bobsworth]

John Percy in the Telephone, who fell hook, line and sinker for Storey's bullshit, has written an article on our demise. In it, he says one bidding consortium has the involvement of Ken Anderson, who nearly ruined Bolton. He can be added to Genevra's involvement with the guy who screwed Wigan.

Holding out for Ashley really. Howe's involvement also makes me feel better as we know he really cares, but given how desperate the situation is he may have concluded questionable parties can't be worse than Dai.

I understand why you would think that Ken Anderson 'nearly ruined Bolton'. That's what 99% of Bolton supporters think but it isn't the case. 99% of Bolton supporters never read the club's Annual Reports and were quite simply led by the nose, most prominently by the local newspaper's agendas.

As a qualified accountant for over half a century and a shareholder, I did read the Annual Reports. Quite keenly as it happens.

[6ft Kerplunk]

Hi Ken.

[Ten Bobsworth]

Hi Ken.

Never met the guy, though I have seen him in action.
Its not too difficult to check the facts as long as you can find your way round company accounts and Administrators statements.
Its all here:
https://find-and-update.company-informa ... ng-history

[Ten Bobsworth]

Hi Ken.

I never met Ken but I did see him in action once. He called an AGM in 2018. He didn't need to and there hadn't been one for years, so what was the AGM all about? There were some interesting bits in the Annual Report so I thought I'd go and see what he had to say. There were about 6,000 minority shareholders and I was also interested to see who, amongst them, turned up and what they had to say.

I had travelled 40 miles to get there and the AGM was over in minutes with Ken saying nowt about owt. The bloke sat next to him (I assumed he was Head of Finance) didn't say anything either. Anyroad after a short pregnant pause, Ken agreed to do a short Q&A with the audience. Those who spoke were full of praise for Ken and he, in turn, was responsive and open about everything he was asked.

But he wasn't asked about the finances how much he had taken out or how much Holdsworth's 50p 'investment' had cost the club.
I knew that the club couldn't have survived in 2017/18 without the Madine money and that it would not survive 2018/19 without new money from somewhere.

A couple of months later the Chief Football Writer of the Bolton News was banned from the stadium. Anderson, like his predecessor Phil Gartside, had had enough of him. I can't say I was surprised but It all kicked off from there.

[Ten Bobsworth]

Well worth Reading fans spending 20minutes watching this. It won't provide a solution but will offer quite a bit in perspective.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdGt33PWKzA

[Sutekh]

Well worth Reading fans spending 20minutes watching this. It won't provide a solution but will offer quite a bit in perspective.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdGt33PWKzA

Karbota heaven.

[Ten Bobsworth]

Well worth Reading fans spending 20minutes watching this. It won't provide a solution but will offer quite a bit in perspective.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdGt33PWKzA

Karbota heaven.

Who is this Karbota person?
Has he/she also been taken in by the likes of McGuire, Vince and journos that publish any old tripe without so much as a first thought let alone a second one?
Anyone watched the youtube video yet?

[From Despair To Where?]

He's a thick as mince racist troll who wants to give Parky a blow job. 95% of the board have him on ignore.