Often Partisan

Carson’s Control Issues

Another one of Carson Yeung’s companies released their results to the HK stock exchange today. SMI Publishing, which is 13.26% owned by Carson Yeung (via his “Billion Wealth” investment vehicle) announced unaudited losses for their third financial quarter of HK$7.51mil (about £600k). SMI Publishing are the owners of the Hong Kong newspaper “Sing Pao”.

What is interesting is a paragraph I’ve lifted from the announcement and I will quote in full here:

A Restraint and Charging Order was issued by the High Court of Hong Kong to among others, Mr. Yeung Ka Shing, Carson (“ Mr. Yeung”) (being the ultimate beneficial owner of Billion Wealth) on 6 July 2011. Accordingly, Billion Wealth may be unable to provide further financial support to the Company under the terms of the HK$50,000,000 loan facility granted by Billion Wealth to the Company on 9 November 2010 in light of the Restraint and Charging Order.

For me, this confirms two things – firstly, that Carson can’t fund any of his companies any more. I agree that we already knew this, but it’s never been confirmed by BIH. Secondly, that without Carson’s money his companies need money to survive from outside sources. Now, again, this is something we had a fair idea of but has never been confirmed by BIH. So in terms of BCFC – quite simply it means that until a so-called “white knight” comes over the hill on his charger, Blues will not have any money to invest in the club unless they generate it for themselves – be it from player sales or from promotion.

I think another distinction to be drawn is that Carson Yeung isn’t a director of SMI Publishing despite being their largest single shareholder. Furthermore, the directors of SMI that had a direct link to him – for example Sammy Yu and BIH company secretary Ip Wing Lun – are no longer on the board.

So we have one company that is partially controlled (and bankrolled) by Carson that has sought to bring in new investment, got rid of his “placemen” and whilst are still in trouble financially have sorted out new revenue streams and have actually started to sort being relisted on the stock exchange – and then you have BIH (which is partially controlled and bankrolled by Carson) which is still not publishing their results, and according to the latest suspension report (MS Word file) have still to submit details to the stock exchange to get themselves relisted; and the key difference between the two is that the one Carson doesn’t control via the board is the one that is moving forwards.  Read into that what you will.

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29 Responses to “Carson’s Control Issues”

  • DoctorD says:

    Mate, you should get a job as football finances media interpreter/pundit. I don’t think even the BBC’s Robert Peston has your insights. Thanks for the post.

  • Chris Quinn says:

    Well done again, Dan. Top filtering

  • Oldbluenose says:

    Which, surely indicates that where Carson, has a direct input into any company, — No funding available, nor will be from that source until conclusion of his trial!!.
    On that basis, — We have to generate our own funding through Cup runs or Promotion,!!!.

  • AR says:

    Thanks once again for what I think is always the best analysis of CY’s troubles. If we were to be promoted, do you think it would be more likely that CY would sell the club? How else would we be able to cope in the Premiership, bearing in mind that CY’s trial is scheduled for November & his assets are frozen?

    • almajir says:

      My honest opinion:

      If we go up, we become a much more viable proposition to sell; equally, we become a much more viable proposition to run. I’m not sure which way that BIH/Carson would jump, but I would hope that they would either get in new investment or sell.

      If we do go up and BIH/Carson cling on, then I suspect we’d be in the Blackpool school of being in the Premiership – no big fees, no big wages and try and stay up based on a good tight knit team and a bit of luck. In fairness, Swansea and Norwich don’t seem to be doing too badly with similar approaches.

  • John says:

    Do you have any clues about the financial state of Blues? I hope we’re not near Pompeys state.

  • Flying Doctor says:

    What will happen if we don’t get promoted?

    • almajir says:

      Don’t know, but I don’t think it will be good.

    • chris says:

      one can only guess
      on a positive note we have sold about 25 million pounds worth of garbage of which we have been paid maybe a third this season plus 16 mill but we have had to pay out fees for the players we have bought probably over the past two years.
      so after all this we are still so far not in admin and as far as we know are paying all our bills inc the taxman.
      the hard part will to be to get through the summer with little income (except season ticket sales) till we get the next installment of next seasons 16 million in august and more income from the installments of the players we have sold last august..

  • Mark Y says:

    I think that it really became evident that Carson’s personal financial situation was very bad when he originally remortgaged his luxury flat to pump money into Blues. The fact that he has defaulted on the mortgage and is in court shortly to deal with this suggests he is in a financial pickle. I feel sorry for him personally because he is not one of the asset stripping type owners that for instance Portsmouth have suffered from. It may be that whilst his assets are frozen that he cannot realise cash from investments to dig him out of trouble, but, it looks like things are going to get a lot worse for him even before the money laundering case gets to court. As for Blues I think we somehow need to go up and which would therefore make the club more saleable otherwise I think next season in the championship will be very different story to this season following further departures.

    • chris says:

      but maybe he has defaulted on his loans because he can’t touch his own money / bank accounts.
      it doesn’t mean he hasn’t the funds to pay his debts, but that he is not allowed to

  • mark says:

    i have heard from a reliable source, that advice “has been undertaken concerning insolvency” recently. From my l;imited knowledge, this is not a good situation even if they are just “contemplating” this issue. I think we need to be looking at the situation less 10 points in the table. In this scenario we would still be safe. This does make sense if they are still intent on delaying financial year end results. However i still think there is a bubble yet to burst, which could mean real problems..

  • Blueboy88 says:

    “until a so-called “white knight” comes over the hill on his charger, Blues will not have any money to invest in the club unless they generate it for themselves – be it from player sales or from promotion”

    Is that not what all European football clubs are required to abide by – living within their means ?
    The UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations, were brought in to prevent professional football clubs spending more than they earn in the pursuit of success and in so doing getting into financial problems which might threaten their long term survival.

    • chris says:

      as far as i am aware under these rules which come into force in 2013 then each club is allowed £32 million euro’s or is it pounds of debt over each two year period.

  • quokkasskip says:

    since the release date of the accounts has been delayed until close to the season end, I think it is all very convienent. I imagine (and hope) if we are close to promotion that some more investment will be found from Yang Y or another source to keep us going until we get all the prem cash. If we are not going to go up automatically and are struggling for the playoffs I think we will go into administration near 30th April. I just hope CH can keep producing miracles with no monies and a tiny but committed squad.

    • chris says:

      From 2007–08 after leeds abused the rules by leaving it late in the season to go into admin, any club entering administration after the fourth Thursday in March would have their 10 point deduction suspended until the following season.

  • quokkasskip says:

    sorry, forgot my manners. Almajir keep up the good work. V interesting and informative stuff.

  • BobbyBlue says:

    Thansk Almajir. Essentially, CY needs to be bought out or acquitted of the ML allegations. I cant see CY being acquited for at least 18 months – if indeed he ever is. How much time have we got? A prospective Buyer is likely to wait for one of two things to happen to the club – promotion (Premier League teams will always attract interest) or administration (pick us up on the cheap). That means it is a race to see which will happen first. If we are in the Championship next year, we will surely sell our best players to stay afloat another year. Promotion will be an even taller task.

    We are in with a good chance this year. We need to get behind CH and the boys… I cant think of a Blues team that deserve it more! KRO

  • prewarblue says:

    Quick question regarding promotion and administration,,,,,,if we get automatic promotion or even by the playoffs,,,,then get confirmation of promotion after which we go into administration before playing a single game,,,,,are we relegated back to the championship with a 10 point deduction straight away for the start of next season ?

  • Thomas Hallberg says:

    I need help. Have the official website for Birmingham City changed adress or what have happened.
    I can’t get in using the adress http://www.bcfc.com. Maybe some of you know the answer…

  • jazzzy786 says:

    As far as I understand if we get promoted before the end of the season we can still be docked 10 points and end up lower. If we go into administration after the domestic season ends and we finish in a playoff position we will still be in the playoffs and will be docked 10 points next season.

  • Julian says:

    As the sole source of meaningful information about BIH and CY your blog is a treasure

  • bluenose08 says:

    Thanks for all the info on carson and bih as life long fan i like to be kept informed of what is going on off the field aswell as on it your site is the only place to provide this information.
    Keep up the good work. k.r.o.

  • Bluenosejohn says:

    Thanks for the hard work on your blog. It must be hard to keep researching the financial position when there is so little good news; it is bad enough having to read the details!! KRO

  • Steve-0 says:

    If all Championship games are completed (excluding play-offs) and we are promoted then we are Premiership. If we then go into administration we will start the Premiership season on -9 points. An uphill struggle to say the least.

    I’ve heard some rumours too about administration. I imagine once we get to 65 points we’ll see some movement with regards to our financial situation, if the rumours are true.

    Let’s hope they’re not. I can’t imagine a 9/10 point deduction will do us any long term good.


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