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Money like Water… An Investor Update
I’m a bit late to this one, as the picture has been floating around since last night. However, I’ve seen it mentioned on a few forums and I thought I’d talk about it and the story behind it on here.
This is the picture in question – it’s taken from a HK newspaper called Apple Today, which in the past has been quite critical of Carson Yeung. The story attached is on this page. So why is Carson riding a hosepipe painted in the colours of the PR China flag, armed with a net and a shovel?
It’s a linguistic thing. The word for “money” in Chinese is similar to that of “water”. It can be shown for instance in feng shui, as practitioners will place a fountain in places of business or homes to bring “money” in. The story backs it up – basically, the rumours of two PR China businessmen pumping money into Sing Pao seem to be gathering strength. The newspapers seem to think that the money will also be pumped into Birmingham, making it the first PR Chinese owned team in England – and this is what I think is key. I haven’t quite pegged the shovel and the net yet, I have to say.
From the news story, you can see that there is talk of real estate developers being involved, from the southern Guangdong province. Carson has links with real estate in China; there are the deals he’s tried to sell to BIH, and the fact that Carson is supposed to have made money in his earlier life from real estate deals in Inner Mongolia. Is it possible he’s been in touch with some of his compadres to help him out of the brown stuff?
This wouldn’t be the first time that the mainland got involved in Blues. When Blues were first purchased by BIH (then Grandtop), a venture capital firm called Shenzhen Capital Group held a 2.5% stake. SCG is a private firm, 100 percent owned by the Government of PR China. They sold up a fortnight after Blues were taken over, however.
I think I’ll wait until I actually see a few Yuan coming in our direction before I completely believe in investment in BCFC. There’s been false dawns before, and Blues need an influx of cash – maybe not immediately but certainly in the near future. However, I am beginning to think that maybe, just maybe there is hope. Unfortunately for Blues fans, this is normally the feeling just before life kicks us in the nuts again. All we can say is que sera sera.
Tags: BIH, Carson Yeung, China, Investment
23 Responses to “Money like Water… An Investor Update”
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Interesting read but one big question immediately comes to mind.
Maybe I’m misunderstanding but I’m just imagining if this was happening in the Uk, I realise things are different around government but we have just seen (News of the World) what happens when government officials are associated with any shady characters.
I cannot imagine that the government of PR China will either directly or indirectly want to have anything to do with CY now or at anytime in the near to medium future. That is unless he is likely to be cleared of the charges he is facing and the charges are shown to be completely false.
Nice column. Just read the article you attached though and to be honest it may as well have been written in Chinese because it makes no sense at all. Even if these so called investors are willing to bail us out of the brown stuff, with so much controversy surrounding Yeung, the secrecy and a general lack of trust with all of the current Board i ask a question; will we always be constantly looking over our shoulders whilst we are in the ownership of BIH. Answer: probably yes.
It’s not a shovel but a paddle. Basically up shits creek without a paddle but now he’s netted a paddle from PR China. My interpretation.
It could be that the pipe symbolises all of the ‘money’ being churned out of PR China… My Yeung is fishing for some of the money… comes up with a small spade (links with the construction angle in your article) but it is a small shovel… so maybe they are saying Yeung has been fishing for money in China and he has managed to pull out an investor – albeit a small investor?
Complete conjecture but worth a try!
I think it’s a veiled lampoon directed at Carson.
Not an insulting one. More an ironic comment.
The PR China are pumping water / money into Carson’s little pond. To support him and keep him going.
But, try as he might he cannot get the money out, because he is using a net, instead of a bucket.
A comment I think on his inability because of his current circumstances, or his business skills.
I think :-)
that might be on the money
Any idea what Carson is saying in that speech bubble?
yeah, it says ” Fluck me im well an truree flucked!!!”
Have you ever emailed Apple Daily and if so have you heard back? Do you reckon the article writer (LiWaWa@AppleDaily.com) would be interest about this blog and what people here think of Yeung?
I haven’t. I don’t believe my Mandarin is up to snuff, and I fear they’d see English as spam.
An interesting and well thought out article. Any idea what CY is saying in the picture? Perhaps this might throw some light of the meaning of the various objects aforementioned?
No, I need to work on translating that.
Got a suggestion: if we all sent identical emails to LiWaWa@AppleDaily.com maybe it might incite a response. Providing the message was short, polite and requesting a simple explanation of the article we might get an answer. Worth a try perhaps? What do others think?
http://www.etnet.com.hk/www/tc/news/rumours_xiaoaojianghu_detail.php?newsid=ETR210729400
Yeah, I published that last week
I’m pretty sure CY has netted a wok ladle, i.e. used for cooking. What? The books?
Also, the cartoon is in Cantonese, not Mandarin, I asked a Chinese girl in the office and she couldn’t get anything out of it accept “wealthy man”, oh the irony.
1.3 billion replicate shirts wouldn’t be a bad piece of business ( shame about the club colours having to become red though ) and if we could literally get them to shit on the villa then that would be another problem solved. May not be advisable to be too critical online and in print though of the potential new owners……
I have seen the facts printed that the case against CY is weak & the main evidence against CY is the fact he has accumulated wealth without any Tax being paid on this wealth.
The defense against this is that it is money gained in gambling the casinos on which no Tax is due.
If this is so I find it hard to see how the tax authorities can assume that this is an offense as with the huge sums being won every week in the Lottery & the Euro-lottery over here which in itself is untaxable why should it be different in Hong kong.
my wifes from hk and the bubble reads i’ve got a big boss behind me
hope that s going to help us
I think I can clarify.
The object in the net is a spatula, on which are the Chinese characters for Sing Pao, the newspaper owned by CY. The spatula is a (pretty poor) pun in Chinese. It is used when frying squid. To ‘fry squid’ in Chinese is slang for getting the sack. Hence, the meaning of the cartoon is that, with money in the form of investment apparently flowing in from the mainland, CY has avoided the prospect of getting the push from his ownership of Sing Pao. How this new investment would impact on BIH or BCFC is unclear (- what isn’t!)
I am convinced the Chinese mantra for saving face,either CY wanting prove he knows what he is doing or the PRC not wanting one of their own cocking up an investment in the UK(west)
They like to think everyone thinks them invincable in business matters
I still cannot believe that CY can pay what he did for Blues and let it go down the pan. I think that selling players for the money we have done is to slow down the process of losing money, keeping investors and the banks happy. Last week it was suggested that we were in the Black with money in the bank and the banks were happy. Another sale soon would make Blues look better for any potential investor. The negative turning slightly more positive. As for the picture, I think its a fly swat CY has for Mcleish !!