The Club, The Board, The Ground

Rumors flying fast that Tony Fernandes has agreed to buy 51% of the club.

Article from the Evening Standard

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/stand...968-qpr-in-talks-with-potential-new-owners.do

 

The Hammersmith & Fulham Chronicle reports: Tony Fernandes will wait for QPR takeover. They say he has purchased a 20% stake in the club now, but he "does not intend to take over entirely until the end of the season at the earliest."

The article says he is "ready to sink £15million into the club" in exchange for the shares. The article I linked elsewhere says Warnock will have that much to spend, but I doubt they're going to sell 20% of the club and then spend all that cash -- they might spend some, but I expect Ecclestone and Briatore will be keeping some of it, too.

 

Tony wooah,
Tony wooooaaah,
he wants to be a Brit,
and QPR are shit

 

The Observer has Tony buying the team and running it hand in hand with Mittal, including Amit (who was at the match) taking over as chairman again.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/aug/13/qpr-tony-fernandes-bernie-ecclestone

please, please, please let this happen. there's still time to buy some defense and stay up.

 

Interview with Fernandes from Sky Sports

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11711_7101613,00.html

"What the manager wants he gets"

 

Best bit:

 

I'm hearing that Sky reported it would be a 66/33/1 for Fernandes/Bhatia/Briatore (who has should no longer have any say, thank god), with Fernandes as Chairman and Bhatia as vice-chairman.

Also saw some solid sources on other forums reporting that Fernandes is very tight with the Mittlas and may just let them run things for him.

 

http://www.fulhamchronicle.co.uk/lo...takeover-hangs-in-the-balance-64767-29251011/

This article says Fernandes wants total control and is trying to buy out the Mittal shares, too. Odd.

 

they nicked it from the Ealing Gazette... I trust the Guardian, ESPN, Sky etc. more than the local papers

 

It's on the official site now, too.

Fernandes 66% (buying all of the Ecclestone & Briatore shares), Mittal 33%.

http://www.qpr.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10373~2424165,00.html

Bhatia resumes his position as vice chairman.

 

"The Malaysian airline entrepreneur Tony Fernandes is the new majority owner of Queens Park Rangers having bought the whole of Bernie Ecclestone's 66% stake in the club for around £35m."

Older articles said the Mittals had offered £33million. Hard to believe they couldn't get a deal done if they were willing to sell to Fernandes for "around £35m."

http://www.fulhamchronicle.co.uk/lo...nd-ecclestone-over-sale-of-qpr-82029-28845552

"The richest man in Britain offered £33million for the pair’s stake described as ‘insultingly low’ by Briatore, who wanted closer to £70m for the duo’s controlling interest.

This Guardian article quoted QPR sources as saying Ecclestone asked Bhatia/Mittal for £50m.

 

The local paper says £60million. Doesn't seem likely.

http://www.fulhamchronicle.co.uk/lo...tes-60million-takeover-of-qpr-64767-29258152/

 

Agreed. The locals are good for some things -- smaller stuff you won't get the nationals to cover (particularly when we weren't in the Prem) -- but that price does not make sense based on previous reporting.

 

Man, the soundbites on the site are just great. Some quotes:

on funds

I assume the player in question is Scott Parker considering Tony's background.

and just to prove he's NOTHING like Flavio and Bernie:

 

This is turning out soooooooooooo much better than I was thinking things would play out over the summer. I am very excited to hear all of this. This looks like the right people are in place now.

 

The local paper linked above was the first I'd seen that Fernandes "is part of a three-man consortium from his native Malaysia" but I haven't seen anything about how much money comes from each. All three have joined the board.

The official site now has quotes from Gnanalingam.

http://www.qpr.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10373~2425411,00.html

A bio of Kamarudin Bin Meranun from the Team Lotus website is at the link below. He is a partner with Fernandes in that venture as well and is "Deputy Team Principal" to Fernandes. The bio says he co-founded AirAsia and Tune Hotels with Fernandes and is Deputy CEO.

http://www.teamlotus.co.uk/team/management/kamarudin-meranun

A bio of Ruben Emir Gnanalingam who is Executive Director of Westports Malaysia:

http://westportsmalaysia.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=106&Itemid=112

 

Twitter contacts for Fernandes, Bhatia, and the QPR press team here:

http://www.qpr.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10373~2425396,00.html

 

"Phil Beard, who was director of marketing for London's successful 2012 Olympic bid and oversaw the Millennium Dome's conversion into the O2 arena, will be the club's new chief executive."

"Fernandes said that he and Bhatia would explore the possibilities for exploiting QPR in Asia and India and said his AirAsia and Malaysian brands would be "heavily involved" in the club. One of them is likely to be emblazoned on QPR's shirts."

"Fernandes said they would "definitely" review ticket prices."

Fernandes said "If we are to make an announcement, it will be before the next home game."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/aug/18/queens-park-rangers-tony-fernandes

 

Pretty exciting stuff. I know it's the kind of thing every owner says, but, well our last two didn't. So I'm up it

 

http://www.qpr.co.uk/page/TicketNews/0,,10373~2429399,00.html

Price reductions and even refunds for season ticket holders and those who paid full price for Newcastle. Wow.