Tiger

Anything yellow and blue
Kairdiff Exile
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Re: Tiger

Post by Kairdiff Exile »

I'm sure that, like everyone else on here, I've been glued to the press conference this morning to hear what Mr Thanakarnjanasuth had to say. Which wasn't very much. It was depressing to contrast the vacuum of Mr Thanakarnjanasuth's comments with the eloquent and persuasive vision that Darryl Eales set out when he took over. Even allowing for the language barrier, there's a big gap there which makes me wary.

Here are my questions on the back of it (and on the back of the posts above about the letters to shareholders):
  • - Otmoor Yellow mentioned that OUFC shares will now be held by Oxford Investment Holding pte Ltd, and that pte is not a commonly used designation in the UK. Are you able to give a bit more detail than that, for us lay people?

    - He was very evasive about who is involved with the bid and whether he's a sole chairman or the front man of a consortium. He said: "I have a guy who's looking at some financial things, and one [member of] staff who helps me". Well that could mean anything, and I'm disappointed in our local media for not pressing him on the issue as it's pretty critical to the future.

    - Likewise, he confirmed that there have been no conversations yet with Firoz, with Mr Thanakarnjanasuth saying that he "doesn't see it as critical". Again, I'm seriously unconvinced by that. Without the ground, it's impossible to make Oxford United a sustainable going concern in the long-term. Again, supplementary questions should have been asked, and weren't.

    - On the manager front, he said that the appointment should be finalised within a day or two. Which I suppose is good news, although I think many of us expected the new manager to be at this morning's presser. Still, we've waited four weeks, so what's a couple more days.
Last edited by Kairdiff Exile on Mon Feb 26, 2018 11:41 am, edited 1 time in total.
Kernow Yellow
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Re: Tiger

Post by Kernow Yellow »

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Nothing on the manager. Nothing on the ground. Nothing on his ambitions. No statement at all. Some guff about how well he did appointing a manager at Reading.

Nothing from Darryl other than 'I think I've done a pretty good job'.

Worried.
OUFC4eva
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Re: Tiger

Post by OUFC4eva »

A worryingly shambolic, unprofessional and totally unprepared media event. It was painful to listen to.

All to symptomatic of a club that has lost its way - completely.
Kairdiff Exile
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Re: Tiger

Post by Kairdiff Exile »

My post above was written contemporaneously with the press conference and was a bit hurried as a result. Looking back, I'm bloody angry. As OUFC4eva has said, it was a shambles. Being late is one thing - but not arriving with a clear vision to outline about why you've bought the club, what you want to achieve and how you'll get there is unforgivable - language barrier or no language barrier.

Anyone could have told him that the questions he'd be asked would be:
- Why have you bought Oxford United?
- What are you plans for the club?
- Who else is involved in the takeover?
- What are your plans to buy the ground?
- When will you be appointing a new manager?

And yet, when these were asked, Mr Thanakarnjanasuth answered them in a way that suggested he'd given them no thought whatsoever. It was painful to listen to - imagine your worst ever job interview, where you've fluffed or waffled through every answer and forgot to prepare the presentation they'd asked for.

I don't know whether the journos from BBC Radio Oxford and the Oxford Mail just took pity on the guy or what - but they really ought to have kept asking the big questions until they got an answer, rather than accepting the platitudes and half-answers they got.

I'm desperate to not be unfairly or unnecessarily negative - but it's hard to not be extremely underwhelmed by what we heard this morning.
OtmoorYellow
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Re: Tiger

Post by OtmoorYellow »

Kairdiff Exile wrote: Mon Feb 26, 2018 11:32 am Otmoor Yellow mentioned that OUFC shares will now be held by Oxford Investment Holding pte Ltd, and that pte is not a commonly used designation in the UK. Are you able to give a bit more detail than that, for us lay people?
Not a great deal more at the moment.

I can confirm the company is registered in Singapore and its UEN (Unique Entity Number) is 201724253R. That's the equivalent of a company number in the UK.

The company is registered to the following address:

96 ROBINSON ROAD #16-04 SIF BUILDING SINGAPORE 068899. This address is a rentable office address, rather than a permanent address.

Holding companies tend to hold only shares of other companies.
slappy
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Re: Tiger

Post by slappy »

If it's any help, when Myles was writing about Tiger's links with Carabao, there was also a Singapore private company as a 51% investor in a Luxembourg company (the other 49% being from a HK subsidiary of the Thai group), which funded the UK company Intercarabao Limited.

I can't see any news from Carabao to say they are involved here, however they are sponsoring the league cup, team sponsorship, and I wouldn't be surprised if they buy a club outright one day.

Perhaps it's just the common usage of a Singapore holding company to make overseas investments, creating another layer, which further hides the final beneficial ownership and source of funding.
Kairdiff Exile
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Re: Tiger

Post by Kairdiff Exile »

Helpful responses, cheers. As a lay person, I always find these labyrinthine financial arrangements murky and suspicious, even if they are the norm in the business world. But hey, that's just me.

I gather from bits on Twitter and from the RadOx interview that Mr Thanakarnjanasuth has hinted that he'll be looking for other investors in the Far East. Maybe this set-up is a necessary precursor to it.
Kernow Yellow
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Re: Tiger

Post by Kernow Yellow »

So we're now owned by a shell company in Singapore - crack open the bubbly! I see that there are apparently 3 Officers of that company. Is it possible to see who they are? And who the owners are?

Tiger's answers to everything today were really poor, but I was particularly unconvinced by his refusal to say whether it was his money or someone else's that has bought the club. I'm still unclear about what Tiger's business background is and how he has come by the money he is supposed to have bought Us with. Anyone know?

I'll try and keep an open mind, but I can't say I'm jumping for joy at the latest developments.

Something was very odd today. Firstly, the delayed start. I mean, as new owner you'd make sure you were in good time for an appointment like that wouldn't you? Then the fact that he didn't in any way 'outline his vision' as was suggested he would. But also, there were evidently five chairs laid out behind the desk, but only DE and Tiger arrived to sit in them plus Chris Williams. Did something fall through at the last minute? A managerial appointment maybe? Hence the delay and general level of fluster?

As to DE's legacy, he has of course been a good chairman for OUFC - probably the best in my 33 years supporting Us. But he has taken his eye off the ball badly this season, in much the same way that Lenagan did at the end of his tenure. Like IL, Eales has stayed on with a 'significant' shareholding, and it remains to be seen whether his continued presence yields any more than IL's did (nothing that I'm aware of, and certainly not the stated aim of sorting out the stadium situation).
Hog
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Re: Tiger

Post by Hog »

Here are notes made by Oxvox at a meeting with Tiger in November ...

http://www.oxvox.org.uk/minutes/oxvox-tiger-10nov2017/
Isaac
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Re: Tiger

Post by Isaac »

As others have said, it's difficult to be enthusiastic about being owned by a Singapore shell company. It doesn't make anything more transparent. I listened to the press conference (a shambles) and the ifollow interview (better, but still confused) and read the OxVox minutes (somewhat out of date). A few initial points;

He needs to appoint a manager this week or it'll look even worse. In the press conference he said there was a shortlist of 4, in the interview he said 2 or 3 and it would take 48 hours.

Flying in for the games is troubling (strangely Eales said this was a sign of commitment, which would be true if Tiger was only a fan, not the owner). Unless he's going to appoint a local chief executive.

Tiger only really talked about how he liked the City as a brand and how he will improve the merchandising. Sensible, but not really a vision, he sounds more like a head of marketing.

Eales has been a good owner, I think, arguably our best one in the 30+ years I've been watching, but I do get the impression he's relieved to be out of it now. Understandable, but I suspect his priority was to sell, rather than to make sure the new owner was in it for the right reasons.

Anyway, the proof will be in the pudding, a bad start doesn't make Tiger a bad owner, but there are a lot of questions.
OtmoorYellow
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Re: Tiger

Post by OtmoorYellow »

Too early to say a bad start, but unusually for a Chris Williams organised event, the initial conference told us nothing.

I suspect a managerial announcement was expected, but possibly contract negotiations couldn't be tied up in time, hence the need for a couple of days breathing space.

The Singapore holding company is a pain. To get further information it requires someone to pay for it, but I doubt at this stage that much of use will be available. Even when it is, it will inevitably result in requirements to continue that same process and financial spend to research subsequent related companies, for the full audit trail to find the persons of significant control. And even that may be impossible if the end investment holding is in an offshore company that maintains secrecy. These matters can be really difficult to trace without a lot of time and a small pot of cash to do so.
Dr Bob
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Re: Tiger

Post by Dr Bob »

The "Oxford Brand"? Echoes of Guerriero at City. Let us hope the parallel ends there.
Kernow Yellow
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Re: Tiger

Post by Kernow Yellow »

Hog wrote: Mon Feb 26, 2018 11:49 pm Here are notes made by Oxvox at a meeting with Tiger in November ...

http://www.oxvox.org.uk/minutes/oxvox-tiger-10nov2017/
I'm pleased that OxVox have released these notes, but they don't really tell us much more than we already know. One thing they do tell us though is the involvement of 'Jack' (Taweesuk Srisumrid), who Myles warned about in his original post on the defunct version of Yellows Forum. I don't recall the details, but he was involved with Man City as an associate of now disgraced ex-PM of Thailand Thaksin Shinawatra.
recordmeister
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Re: Tiger

Post by recordmeister »

Tiger has one hurdle to jump before he even starts: Evans has left Mansfield; I do hope this has NOTHING to do with Oxford United or else he will be off to a terrible start... ;)
Jimski
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Re: Tiger

Post by Jimski »

He's thankfully being linked with Peterborough.
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