Kenneth William Bates was a native of London, England, but lived in Monaco.
The reason is tax avoidance.
Although he owns most of the ownership of Leeds United in the English Championship and serves as the club's chairman and major shareholder, he actually does not often go to this club to watch football because he does not have much interest in it.
Moreover, he is almost eighty years old and cannot withstand the back and forth.
He mostly lives in Monaco and controls business that happens in the UK.
Not only that, he also specifically entrusted Cash Harris, chairman of Seymour Pierce Investment Bank in the City of London, to act as his agent to sell Leeds United to interested foreign investors.
He has been trapped by this team for six full years.
At the beginning, a very important reason why he invested in Leeds United was because he saw the foundation of this team. He felt that Leeds United could quickly return to the Premier League after being relegated, so he took the opportunity to buy at the bottom and planned to cash out after returning to the Premier League. One stroke.
You know, the Premier League in 2004 and 2005 coincided with a wave of foreign acquisitions.
But who would have thought that not long after the acquisition, Leeds United would be deducted points due to debt problems. Instead of returning to the Premier League, they fell into League One, which lasted for six years.
After finally climbing back to the English Championship, we suddenly encountered an economic crisis again.
This kind of luck is really bad!
Therefore, when Cash Harris told him that an investor from China was interested in Leeds United, Bates wondered if he had heard wrongly. After confirming again and again, he flew to London without stopping.
He met the investor at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Hyde Park South, London.
He was stunned!
…
"Mr. Bates?" Cash Harris coughed lightly and reminded.
In fact, he was not surprised, because when he saw this beautiful Chinese woman for the first time, she also had this amazing expression.
I just didn't expect that Bates would still be so out of control at almost eighty years old.
"Oh." Bates smiled awkwardly and adjusted the glasses on the bridge of his nose, "I'm sorry, I really didn't expect that the person I would meet would be such a beautiful woman with such an elegant temperament."
But soon, Bates frowned.
"Excuse my presumption, why do I feel that both of them look familiar?" Bates looked at Su Qing in front of her and Fernando Lucas, who was sitting next to her, with confusion on his face.
In fact, both of them are easy to recognize. Su Qing is Chinese and Lucas is Spanish.
More importantly, they are all famous.
"Let me introduce you, Mr. Bates." Cash Harris smiled, thinking to himself that this old man's eyesight is still very good, and he recognized it right away. He didn't look like he was eighty years old. people.
"This is Miss Su Qingsu, the person in charge of this Chinese investment company. In addition, she is also the fiancée of Mr. Gao Shen."
When Bates heard this, he immediately patted his thigh and remembered.
"By the way, I have seen Miss Su's photos in newspapers and on TV. No wonder she looks familiar. And this person, if I remember correctly, you should be Mr. Gao's assistant."
Lucas was not shy and reached out, "I am his chief analyst, Fernando Lucas, and I am also Miss Su's investment advisor this time."
Bates looked at Su Qing, then at Fernando Lucas, and immediately laughed again.
"Excuse me for asking again, is the investor who purchased Leeds United this time Mr. Gao?"
"He will help me make suggestions." This time Su Qing answered directly.
Cash Harris also said: "Actually, Miss Su's family has a lot of assets in China. Because of Mr. Gao, they are very interested in investing in football."
"So, Mr. Gao plans to coach Leeds United himself?" Bates asked tentatively.
If this is the case, then he must reconsider it, after all, the name of Gao Shen is not simple.
The most popular head coach in world football today, and his coaching represents the championship!
If you can own shares in a team coached by Gao Shen and be promoted to the Premier League in the future, it will definitely be a huge profit.
"How is this possible? He won't participate. In fact, he doesn't support my decision and keeps trying to persuade me not to participate because the football club doesn't make money." Su Qing smiled sweetly and replied.
Bates looked at Cash Harris, who nodded slightly.
Indeed, he had never seen Gao Shen come forward during the whole process. The only people who had contact with him in the past few days were Su Qing and Lucas.
According to news reports, Gao Shen is currently in Manchester, leading the team to prepare for the weekend derby against Manchester United. How can he have time to distract himself from acquiring Leeds United?
Besides, with Gao Shen's annual salary, can he acquire a club?
"Actually, it may not be impossible to make money. With Mr. Gao's connections in European football, as long as he is willing, you can definitely make money after acquiring the club, such as renting some players from teams such as Manchester City, Manchester United, Real Madrid, and Naples. He
The relationship with these teams, as well as Ferguson and others, is very good."
"After being promoted to the Premier League, the club's finances have become more abundant, and it can definitely buy more players. And the whole world knows that Mr. Gao's vision of people is very accurate. Any player he likes is worth a lot.
Skyrocketing.”
Bates praised him vigorously, but he was actually testing it.
"I have said that he will not participate, and he does not have the time. Besides, do you think, as you said, if Leeds United is promoted to the Premier League, then it is not a conflict of interest for him to coach Manchester City?" Su Qing asked.
Only then did Ken Bates believe it, but he felt somewhat disappointed.
If Gao Shen was involved, he really believed in Gao Shen's ability to bring Leeds United back to life.
…
When the negotiations actually began, Bates was so shrewd that he hardly looked like an 80-year-old man.
He currently holds 72.85% of Leeds United's shares, but he is the largest shareholder. As long as he agrees, Su Qing can launch an acquisition of Leeds United, but his first offer is a big deal, asking for 50 million.
GBP.
Not to mention Su Qing and Lucas, even Cash Harris was shocked.
Damn it, the lion is opening his mouth, who are you trying to bluff?
At this time, the lawyers brought by Su Qing and Lucas came forward.
"Mr. Bates, I am a lawyer from Frontier Law Firm, specializing in sports law." Richard Cramer handed over his business card and added, "Our law firm is in Leeds."
Leeds is the second largest legal center in the UK.
Okay, I can’t bluff anymore.
When Kramer presented all the materials he had investigated, including the ownership status of the stadium, training ground and surrounding land, Bates admitted this and said that it was indeed sold, but it was not handled by him.
"I was wronged too. I found out after I took over that the bastard Ridsdale had sold them all."
Richard Cramer laughed again, "Mr. Bates, you only spent a total of 10 million pounds to obtain these shares in Leeds United, and the value of the football field, training base and land is 20 million pounds."
The implication is that you are so smart, you are not so naive as to think that someone would be stupid enough to package up a club worth 30 to 40 million pounds and sell it to you for 10 million pounds, right?
"Mr. Bates, I think it is better for us to be more sincere, otherwise, we will consider other teams. You know, now in the entire English Championship, English League One, and even the Premier League, the operating conditions of many teams are not acceptable.
Be optimistic, you are not the only one selling the team." Su Qing pressed.
Bates licked his lips and nodded, "You did do a thorough investigation beforehand, but the 50 million pounds I said is also true, because 20 million pounds of it will be used to acquire stadiums, training bases and
Of the land.”
Su Qing smiled softly, it would be too stupid to take Bates' words seriously.
"Thirty million pounds?"
"right."
"This is unrealistic, and I also heard that you are in arrears with players' salaries, and even the stadium rental and stadium management fees are also in arrears." Su Qing said.
"False, this is definitely fake. You can check it. We invite professional accounting firms to do audits every year. We make profits every season. A few days ago, they told me that this season's operating profit
About a million pounds."
"Ha, Mr. Bates, isn't this simple?" Su Qing laughed again.
Richard Cramer also said: "According to my investigation, Leeds United is indeed in arrears with wages, but it doesn't matter. If both parties have the intention to cooperate, we can sign an exclusivity clause and then arrange the legal circle of magic."
due diligence conducted.”
An exclusivity clause means that no one can negotiate with a third party within the time agreed upon by both parties.
Its advantage is that it can go to the next step and start due diligence on the acquisition target, so that a very detailed and accurate financial report can be obtained, including the people involved.
This is routine operation in acquisition cases.
But in the field of football, this is very cumbersome because it involves player transactions, which may even be player transactions many years ago, such as arrears of transfer fees, arrears of salaries or bonuses, etc. Installment payments are also very common in player transfers.
, and many clubs will take the installment payment and then go to the bank for a loan.
This involves very complex and cumbersome investigation content that ordinary law firms simply cannot handle and can only be left to large law firms with many employees. The Magic Circle is the collective name for elite law firms in the UK.
Bates was immediately speechless.
This is why Su Qing specially arranged for a sports law lawyer to accompany her.
No matter when, if you believe in the law, you will never suffer a loss.
Bates looked at Su Qing in front of him with complicated eyes. He suddenly realized that this delicate beauty in front of him was not simple at all, and she was really impeccable in doing things.
It seems that many things cannot be hidden.
Su Qing also felt Bates's eyes, noticed the change in his expression, and knew something about it.
"Mr. Bates, we are very sincere and want to acquire all the shares of Leeds United, but frankly speaking, it is impossible for us to accept your offer. For the current Leeds United, we can only give you 15 million at most."
Pounds." Su Qing said very simply.
"That's impossible!" Bates shook his head and refused.
"It doesn't matter, you can think about it, we also have other references." Su Qing stood up with a smile.
It's unrealistic to settle the matter at the first meeting, and she's not that naive.
