Seven Hundred and Two Lions Open Their Mouths

Kenneth William Bates was born in London, England, but lives in Monaco.

The reason is tax avoidance.

Although he owns most of the ownership of Leeds United in the British Championship and serves as the club's chairman and major shareholder, he actually doesn't often go to this club to watch football because he doesn't have much interest in it.

Moreover, he was almost eighty years old, and he couldn't stand the back and forth.

He is more of a Monaco resident, with remote business happening in the UK.

Not only that, he also specially entrusted Kesh Harris, chairman of Seymour Pierce Investment Bank of the City of London, as his agent, to sell Leeds United to interested foreign investors.

He has been set by this team for six full years.

At the beginning, one of the important reasons why he invested in Leeds United was to see the background of this team. He felt that Leeds United could return to the Premier League soon after being relegated. a sum.

You know, the Premier League in 2004 and 2005 happened to set off a wave of foreign acquisitions.

But who would have thought that not long after the acquisition, Leeds United would be deducted points due to debt problems, not only failed to return to the Premier League, but also fell into the League One, which lasted for six years.

After finally climbing back to the British Championship, it suddenly encountered an economic crisis.

This luck is really enough!

Therefore, when Kesh Harris told him that an investor from China was interested in Leeds United, Bates wondered if he had heard it wrong. After repeated confirmation, he flew to London without stopping.

He met the investor at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel on the south side of London's Hyde Park.

He was stunned!

...

"Mr. Bates?" Kesh Harris coughed lightly and reminded.

In fact, he was not surprised, because when he saw this beautiful Chinese woman for the first time, he also had this amazing expression.

It's just that he didn't expect Bates to lose his composure like this when he was almost eighty years old.

"Oh." Bates smiled awkwardly, lifted his glasses on the bridge of his nose, "I'm sorry, I really didn't expect that I would meet such a beautiful woman with such an elegant temperament."

But soon, Bates frowned.

"Excuse me, why do I feel that both of you are familiar?" Bates looked at Su Qing in front of him, and Fernando Lucas who was sitting next to her, with a puzzled expression on his face.

The two are actually easy to recognize. Su Qing is Chinese and Lucas is Spanish.

More importantly, they are all big names.

"Let me introduce you, Mr. Bates." Kesh Harris smiled, thinking to himself, this old man's eyesight is still very good, and he recognized him right away. He doesn't look like he is eighty years old. people.

"This is Ms. Su Qingsu, the person in charge of this Chinese investment company. In addition, she is Mr. Gao Shen's fiancée."

As soon as Bates heard this, he patted his thigh lightly and remembered.

"By the way, I've seen pictures of Ms. Su in newspapers and on TV. No wonder she looks familiar. And this one, if I remember correctly, you should be Mr. Gao's assistant."

Lucas was not timid, and reached out his hand, "I am his chief analyst, Fernando Lucas, and I am also Miss Su's investment advisor this time."

Bates looked at Su Qing, then at Fernando Lucas, and immediately laughed again.

"Excuse me again, may I ask the investor who bought Leeds United this time is Mr. Gao?"

"He will help me with my plans.

"This time it was Su Qing who answered directly.

Kesh Harris also said aside: "Actually, Ms. Su's family has a lot of assets in China. Because of Mr. Gao, they are very interested in investing in football."

"So, Mr. Gao intends to coach Leeds United himself?" Bates asked tentatively.

If this is the case, then he must reconsider, after all, Gao Shen's name is not easy.

The most popular head coach in world football today, and his coaching represents the champion!

If you can own shares in the team coached by Gao Shen and wait for the promotion to the Premier League in the future, it will definitely be a lot of money.

"How is this possible? He won't participate. In fact, he doesn't support my decision and keeps persuading me not to participate because the football club doesn't make money." Su Qing replied with a smile.

Bates looked at Kesh Harris, who nodded slightly.

He really didn't see Gao Shen in the whole process. The people who came into contact with him in the past few days were Su Qing and Lucas.

According to news reports, Gao Shen is now in Manchester, leading the team to prepare for the weekend derby against Manchester United. How can he have time to distract himself from the acquisition of Leeds United?

Besides, with Gao Shen's annual salary, can he buy a club?

"Actually, it doesn't necessarily mean that you don't make money. With Mr. Gao's connections in European football, as long as he is willing, you can make money after you buy a club, such as renting some players from teams such as Manchester City, Manchester United, Real Madrid, and Naples. The relationship with these teams, as well as Ferguson and others, is very good."

"After being promoted to the Premier League, the club's finances are abundant, and it is absolutely possible to buy more people. Moreover, the whole world knows that Mr. Gao has a very precise eye for people. Any player he likes is worth anything. Skyrocket."

Bates gave a stern compliment, but was actually probing.

"As I said before, he won't participate, and he doesn't have the time. Besides, do you think, if Leeds United are promoted to the Premier League as you said, isn't it a conflict of interest for him to coach Manchester City?" Su Qing asked.

Only then did Ken Bates believe it, but he was somewhat disappointed.

If Gao Shen participated, he really believed in Gao Shen's ability to bring Liz United back from the dead.

...

When the negotiations actually started, Bates was too shrewd to look like an eighty-year-old man.

He currently holds 72.85% of the shares of Leeds United, but he is the largest shareholder. As long as he agrees, Su Qing can initiate an acquisition of Leeds United, but his first offer can be described as a lion's mouth, directly asking for 50 million GBP.

Not to mention Su Qing and Lucas, even Kesh Harris was taken aback.

Fuck, the lion opened his mouth wide, who is he bluffing?

At this time, the lawyer brought by Su Qing and Lucas came forward.

"Mr. Bates, I am a lawyer from a frontier law firm, specializing in sports law." Richard Cramer handed over his business card and added, "Our law firm is in Leeds."

Leeds, the second largest legal center in the UK.

Well, I can't stop bluffing.

When Cramer took out all the materials he had investigated, including the ownership of the stadium, training ground and surrounding land, Bates also admitted this, saying that it was indeed sold, but he did not handle it.

"I'm also very wronged. I didn't know until I took over that the bastard Ridsdale sold all of these."

Richard Cramer laughed again, "Mr. Bates, you only spent a total of 10 million pounds to get these shares of Leeds United, and the value of the football field, training base and land is 20 million pounds."

The implication is that you are so shrewd as an old man, you wouldn’t be so naive as to think that someone would be so stupid as to sell you a club worth 30 to 40 million pounds for 10 million pounds, right?

"Mr. Bates, I think it's better for us to be more sincere, otherwise, we will consider other teams. You know, the operating conditions of many teams in the entire English Championship, League One, and even the Premier League are not tolerable." Optimistic, you are not the only one selling the team." Su Qing pressed.

Bates licked his lips and nodded, "You did a thorough investigation beforehand, but the 50 million pounds I said is also true, because 20 million pounds of it will be used to acquire stadiums, training bases and Earthy."

Su Qing smiled softly, it would be too stupid to take Bates' words seriously.

"Thirty million pounds?"

"right."

"This is unrealistic, and I have also heard that you are in arrears with the players' salaries, and even the rent of the stadium and the fees of the stadium management personnel." Su Qing said.

"Fake, this is absolutely false, you can check it out, we invite professional accounting firms to do audits every year, we make profits every season, a few days ago, they told me that the operating profit of this season About a million pounds."

"Ha, Mr. Bates, isn't this simple?" Su Qing laughed again.

Richard Cramer also interjected: "According to my investigation, Leeds United is indeed in arrears of salary, but it doesn't matter. If both parties have the intention of cooperation, we can sign an exclusive clause and then arrange legal affairs for the Magic Circle." due diligence.”

Exclusive clauses mean that no one can negotiate with a third party within the time agreed by both parties.

And its advantage is that it can go to the next step and initiate due diligence on the acquisition target, so that a very detailed and accurate financial report can be obtained, including the personnel involved.

This is common practice in acquisition cases.

But in the field of football, this is very cumbersome, because it involves player transactions, which may even be player transactions many years ago, such as arrears of transfer fees, salary or bonuses, etc. Installment payments are also very common in player transfers , And many clubs will take the installment payment and then go to the bank for a loan.

This involves very complicated and cumbersome investigations. Ordinary law firms can't do it at all. They can only be handed over to large law firms with many employees. The Magic Circle is the collective name for elite law firms in the UK.

Bates was immediately speechless.

This is why Su Qing specially arranged for a sports lawyer to accompany her.

No matter when, if you believe in the law, you will definitely not suffer.

Bates looked at Su Qing in front of him with complicated eyes, and he suddenly realized that this delicate beauty in front of him was not simple at all, and she was really impeccable in doing things.

It seems that many things cannot be hidden.

Su Qing also felt Bates' eyes, noticed the change in his expression, and knew it well.

"Mr. Bates, we are very sincere and want to acquire all the shares of Leeds United, but frankly speaking, it is impossible for us to accept your offer. For the current Leeds United, we can only give 15 million at most. GBP." Su Qing said very simply.

"It's impossible!" Bates shook his head and refused.

"It's okay, you can think about it, we also have other reference objects." Su Qing stood up with a smile.

It's unrealistic to make a deal at the first meeting, and she is not so naive.

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