American Investors for Tigers?

[Knightonian]

The Rugby Paper headline tomorrow is that American investors are looking to buy into or buy up Leicester Tigers

https://twitter.com/TheRugbyPaper/statu ... 5815337987

[trendylfj]

Let's hope this is not the start of the football model after the debacle of the recently failed super-league. If they want to take our club forward in the way the fans want, then I would be prepared to look and accept it, but money in/money out, here today gone tomorrow - no thanks.

[JP14]

After all the good work of the last 12 months, it would be silly to throw that all away in the name of a short-term profit, unless these investors are the American equivalent of the City owners. Given that the club has long been off the market, it seems that Tigers have been approached rather than the other way round.

[Tigers86asw]

As a Liverpool fan this worries me a great deal.

Before the recent Super League debacle I was quite happy with FSG leadership. Self sufficient, excellent team, expanded the stadium and new training ground. World class manager. However the recent profit mongering at the expense of any meritocracy is the enemy of sport. It has broken trust. However worth noting the rugby premiership is about to become a closed shop so I don’t want to throw stones in glass houses.

Similarly I would be wary of pre judging any owner due to where they are from. Plenty of examples in football of very poor ownership of every type of model- Barcelona is meant to be owned by the fans and is a basket case. We could get new owners from
the US who are excellent but history is not kind to that theory.

Finally it says they are looking for investment- does this mean ownership? It is implied but never said explicitly they are looking for outright ownership. US investors clearly looking closely at rugby.

[kpj tiger]

I would be extremely wary of these big investment firms that are snooping around rugby, personally I think the CVC deals for the prem and 6n were pretty disastrous in the long term however good the short term benefits are, it seems to me that they have seen sport for the cash cow it can be and that is all they are interested in, the ring fencing of the prem was another step on the path to encouraging these investors as their investments will be relatively safe.

I really hope this doesn't happen, I have no issue with big money coming to rugby in principle but recent events in football SHOULD teach us that you really need to pick and choose who you let in else you might not get what you wished for

[kpj tiger]

Out of interest can somebody who has the paper give us the gist of the article, from the front page it doesn't really give any details at all

[manxleigh]

Given the salary cap, which will prevent ridiculous contacts etc, surely an investment in the structure of the club is desirable? Has to be right of course, but wouldnt dismiss it before the details are known. What the Americans are really good at is developing international brands - increased shirt sales, capital investment etc.

[jgriffin]

While sport has always been ripe for this kind of money, across the board US money is being actively touted by this government, so I'm not surprised that probes are out all over the UK economy. The CVC and similar operations are classic profit extraction, neoliberal model businesses (or vampire capitalism as it is known in some places).
I would disagree with the previous poster - the Americans are good at extracting profit one way or another.
There are genuine owner/fans around, this isn't that sort of thing.

[RagingBull]

Nothing story based on that article so far.

Most likely heard the Diamonds talking to americans about the prem and link that with the club being on sale a couple years ago.
Not saying it's completely made up but base on that article nothing to me suggest anything major currently.

That being said I could see someone buying Scott's shares.

[sk 88]

Regarding some of the comments here:

1) We've already de-facto ring-fenced the league, and the structure of permanent members already exists financially in the Premiership thanks to P Share structure.

2) Tom Scott has not been shy in extracting interest on the loans he gave us. With the structure of the Loan Notes the club effectively paid him interest to purchase the shares he will eventually sell at a good profit. Now, that's not a "bad thing" but it is what happened so when comparing to the potential motives of future owners we should also consider the motives of our current owner.

3) No firm is named as being interested, so we cannot at this stage look into a track record. American businesses are as different to each other as UK ones are. Some are dodgy, some are not.

[sk 88]

Nothing story based on that article so far.

Most likely heard the Diamonds talking to americans about the prem and link that with the club being on sale a couple years ago.
Not saying it's completely made up but base on that article nothing to me suggest anything major currently.

That being said I could see someone buying Scott's shares.

Yes, strip away the flim-flam and it is "People interested in buying Tigers", which while an interesting as a story is at this stage not much more than that. Without a name there is little more to go on.

[RagingBull]

Regarding some of the comments here:

1) We've already de-facto ring-fenced the league, and the structure of permanent members already exists financially in the Premiership thanks to P Share structure.

2) Tom Scott has not been shy in extracting interest on the loans he gave us. With the structure of the Loan Notes the club effectively paid him interest to purchase the shares he will eventually sell at a good profit. Now, that's not a "bad thing" but it is what happened so when comparing to the potential motives of future owners we should also consider the motives of our current owner.

3) No firm is named as being interested, so we cannot at this stage look into a track record. American businesses are as different to each other as UK ones are. Some are dodgy, some are not.

and truthfully I could see the current PRL stake holders doing the exact thing people are worried about "foreign" owners doing.

For me it's hard to compare other sports owners to Rugby owners just because the outlay is massively different.
It costs what £12 million a year to run the club? Which is prob not even a 10th of what Premier league teams pay

[wellstiger]

Guess an ex President wants to add a Rugby club to its Golf portfolio in the UK.
Then we would have to change the name to Trump Towers Hotel and Trump Towers Welford Road Stadium.

Joking...............

Then again its the Rugby Paper...........which links any Mickey Mouse storey to Tigers.

[jgriffin]

Regarding some of the comments here:

1) We've already de-facto ring-fenced the league, and the structure of permanent members already exists financially in the Premiership thanks to P Share structure.

2) Tom Scott has not been shy in extracting interest on the loans he gave us. With the structure of the Loan Notes the club effectively paid him interest to purchase the shares he will eventually sell at a good profit. Now, that's not a "bad thing" but it is what happened so when comparing to the potential motives of future owners we should also consider the motives of our current owner.

3) No firm is named as being interested, so we cannot at this stage look into a track record. American businesses are as different to each other as UK ones are. Some are dodgy, some are not.

and truthfully I could see the current PRL stake holders doing the exact thing people are worried about "foreign" owners doing.

For me it's hard to compare other sports owners to Rugby owners just because the outlay is massively different.
It costs what £12 million a year to run the club? Which is prob not even a 10th of what Premier league teams pay

Can't disagree with any of this. We have long passed the sentimental stage in general, Mammon rules and has done for many years.

[MurphysLaw]

Who knows if this is just 'paper talk'? However, it is not that long since the club's main shareholders were trying to sell, and it would not be that much of a surprise if they were open to talking to any potential suitors (if there was someone willing to stump up the 'right level of investment').
Having said that, as a plc, wouldn't there need to be procedural public announcements following stock market rules and regs, for any formal discussions to take place?