Asian money to the rescue

Two teams in the English Premier League have turned to Asia for increased finance. Queens Park Rangers and Manchester United could join Manchester City, owned by Shaikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi, and Blackburn Rovers, wholly owned by the Indian chicken family, Venky’s, to look for some much-needed cash.

Of particular interest to those in Bahrain will be the sale by Formula One supremo, Bernie Ecclestone, and former Renault team owner, Flavio Briatore, of their 66 per cent stake in QPR. The new owner, Tony Fernandes, shares an interest in F1, although he sees synergies between this and his new investment in football.

Fernandes, voted in 2010 as Asian Businessman of the Year by Forbes magazine, will now work alongside the Mittal family from India, who have welcomed the changing of the guard.  Ironically, Fernandes came close to acquiring West Ham United, retaining the support of the home crowd on the basis that he is a lifelong fan. However, he claims to have always had a soft spot for QPR having also watched them as a child.

Owner of the Team Lotus Formula One team and airline company AirAsia, Fernandes believes that there is an increasing trend for sports fans wanting to travel and believes this expansion into football will help his other businesses. Having seen his airline grow to cater for 32 million passengers within 10 turbulent years, who can argue?

Indeed he sees a synergy between his timing for entering the Premier League with his entry into F1.  Investing in Team Lotus at a time when spending was at an all-time high, he has presided over slashed budgets and incomes increased due to the larger number of races and more television coverage.

Fernandes is keen to address some of the pre-season complaints from the Loftus Road faithful, promising to review the increase in the season-ticket prices while also making transfer funds available.

Successful manager Neil Warnock has already identified Scott Parker, Nedum Onuoha and Shaun Wright-Phillips as potential acquisitions. Indeed, QPR has already had an initial bid for last season’s Premiership player of the year, Parker, rejected by his owner’s, West Ham United.

The change in ownership has already had a positive impact as QPR overturned their disappointing 4-0 home defeat to Bolton with a morale-boosting 1-0 away victory against last season’s European contenders, Everton.

Fernandes refused to get carried away and rejected the opportunity to make any projections, other than to try to survive in the Premiership this season. The aim will be to build an infrastructure that the fans can be proud of and will sustain a profitable financial model in the long-term. Fernandes will take the role of chairman of QPR Holdings Ltd and will be joined on the board by Kamarudin bin Meranun, one of Malaysia’s most successful business tycoons.

Another club, further up the table, finally listening to the concerns of its fans is the world’s best supported club, Manchester United. The Glazer family have informed the Singapore Stock Exchange (SSE) that the proceeds of United’s proposed £600 million (BD364 million) flotation will be used to reduce the club’s £480 million debt and strengthen attempts to compete financially with local rivals, Manchester City.

It is estimated that this will represent a sale of approximately 30 per cent of the Old Trafford club. There have also been rumours that manager Alex Ferguson will also receive some of the funds in the form of an enhanced transfer kitty, which is perhaps the first confirmation that the annual payment of £45 million for interest on their debt, has hindered spending in the transfer market.

While Ferguson has spent heavily this summer, realistically this is only the money acquired from the sale of Christiano Ronaldo two seasons ago. Meanwhile, they are expected to lose out to City on the capture of Arsenal midfielder Samir Nasri as they cannot match his wage demands.

This Asian flotation follows the redemption of the Glazer’s PIK loan of £220 million in November, although given the secrecy surrounding private ownership makes it impossible to determine where this came from and how it was managed.

However, with a flotation of this kind, the Glazer’s will lose the privacy they are currently afforded. Other risks inherent in this procedure are volatile price fluctuations that can come with a succession of defeats or premature exits from European competition, or the 30 per cent stake being acquired in large shareholdings from individual investors, leading to the Board turbulence recently witnessed at Arsenal.

Either way, Asian football can look forward to increased participation in the self-proclaimed ‘most exciting league in the world’!