Clyde1998@james_e1871 I’ve reached out to the club and have been told ‘an update on the takeover process and wider issues will be communicated in the coming days.’ #readingfc
HoundClyde1998@james_e1871 I’ve reached out to the club and have been told ‘an update on the takeover process and wider issues will be communicated in the coming days.’ #readingfc
Fully expecting this to be the sale is complete and the new owners are pumping money into the club to fund transfers, restoring the ground and generally being all round great people
HoundClyde1998@james_e1871 I’ve reached out to the club and have been told ‘an update on the takeover process and wider issues will be communicated in the coming days.’ #readingfc
Fully expecting this to be the sale is complete and the new owners are pumping money into the club to fund transfers, restoring the ground and generally being all round great people
El DiabloHoundClyde1998
Fully expecting this to be the sale is complete and the new owners are pumping money into the club to fund transfers, restoring the ground and generally being all round great people
Yup, The' wider issue ' being whose going to organise the week long mega party ..
just bought the club from Dai.Following the last update on the 28th November, The Club can provide further information regarding the ongoing takeover process.
Negotiations with the prospective buyer remain ongoing, with the short-term funding of the club taking priority at this present time. Whilst the club understands our supporters' desire for the identity of the purchaser to be confirmed, at this stage confidentiality must remain in place for the benefit of all parties.
In the most recent update, the process of completing the sale had been described as ‘complicated and lengthy’. Since this point, one external factor which had caused delay has subsequently been resolved, with the ‘Stop Notice’ charge in place against the Select Car Leasing Stadium now removed. There is also an ongoing litigation proceeding from an outside party against Mr Dai. This matter is now in the hands of Mr Dai’s lawyers, and the club will make no further comment.
As we reach the final stages of 2024, the club would like to put on record its thanks to a series of key stakeholders.
To our Club Partners and Suppliers, thank you for consistently going above and beyond when working alongside the club.
To our players, thank you for your relentless efforts towards putting the club in a position where we end 2024 in the Sky Bet League One Play-Off positions. The togetherness and resilience shown throughout the year is a testament to you all and we are proud of the progression and passion we see on the pitch each week. This is replicated through the academy whereby 2024 has also seen success both on the pitch, and players progressing through to the first team.
To the staff across the whole club, thank you for the countless hours and hard work dedicated towards ensuring the club can operates to its maximum ability both on matchdays and during the working week.
To the fans, thank you for standing by your club during a difficult year. Your support at both the Select Car Leasing Stadium and across the country has been unwavering despite the obstacles faced. The ongoing commitment to the club is evident each week – and as we finish the calendar year with one of the strongest home records in the division, the part played by our supporters should not be underestimated
The Reading owner Dai Yongge’s repeated attempts to sell the club are being jeopardised by his failure to repay previously undisclosed debts of more than £55m to a state-backed Chinese bank, according to documents seen by the Guardian.
A loan from Haitong International Securities caused the collapse of a £30m takeover by Rob Couhig last month, with documents showing the investment bank has the right to take ownership of Reading’s stadium if it is sold without the debt being repaid.
Reading announced on Monday they had entered “exclusive negotiations” with another buyer but the stadium issue remains unresolved and ownership will pass to Haitong if the loan remains outstanding after the club are sold, according to the documents. The English Football League has not been told the identity of the new Reading bidder, with sources sceptical a sale will take place.
Haitong is merging with another Chinese bank, Guotai Junan Securities, to create the country’s biggest bank, with assets of about £175bn. Haitong is understood to have effectively blocked last month’s sale by obtaining a stop notice in the British Virgin Islands (BVIs), where the stadium is registered for tax reasons, which prevented it being transferred to Couhig’s company, Redwood Holdings.
Couhig was not informed until late in the process about Yongge’s debt to Haitong, which is secured against the club’s stadium. The EFL was also not aware of the loan despite being asked to approve the sale.
The possibility of an EFL stadium falling into the ownership of government-backed Chinese bank could have political ramifications at a time when the governance of football is being heavily scrutinised in Westminster. The Football Governance Bill setting up an independent regulator is due to be introduced to parliament this year.
Dai has been under huge pressure from Reading fans to sell for more than a year owing to his disastrous stewardship. “It’s not that Dai won’t sell, but he can’t sell,” a source with knowledge of the process said. “He put the stadium up as collateral against a £50m loan, and the bank want their money back. And no one is going to buy Reading without the stadium. The loan was due to be repaid two years ago and Haitong have been going through the Hong Kong courts since then, but with Dai close to selling they are pushing harder now. Given their links to the Chinese government they should not be underestimated.”
Haitong is understood to have provided a loan to Prestige Fortune Asia, which lists Dai as its sole shareholder, of about £44m in 2018, a year after he paid £24.5m for the then Championship club. The loan matured in July 2022 with repayments due immediately, but not one has been made and with interest payments added the debt has increased to more than £55m.
Documents seen by the Guardian suggest negotiations between the parties over repayments began in January 2023, with Dai proposing using assets including the stadium and surrounding land to repay the debt.
The documents show that Haitong took the matter to the Hong Kong courts. Last November it received an undated letter of undertaking signed by Dai stating that any proceeds from the sale of Reading, including directly and indirectly connected holding companies, should be first used for the partial repayment of a debt which then stood at £45m.
With Dai engaged in sale talks Haitong applied for a stop notice regarding the stadium, which was granted by the BVIs’ court office last February. In July Haitong’s lawyers received notice that Dai was planning to transfer ownership of the stadium to Couhig’s company, Redwood Stadium Limited.
This was stopped by a ruling in August from the high court of justice in the BVIs, which ruled that Prestige Fortune Asia be prohibited from transferring, selling or taking interest payments or dividends related to the stadium until the conclusion of the Hong Kong court proceedings.
The EFL, Reading and Haitong International declined to comment.
WestYorksRoyal I'd rate as a positive update. I don't really know what the stop notice means, but its removal suggests work is actually happening and they're not just lying to us.
The short term funding wording is ambiguous. I think they're trying to agree it with the buyer, but know they may need to fall back on player sales.
Mid Sussex RoyalWestYorksRoyal I'd rate as a positive update. I don't really know what the stop notice means, but its removal suggests work is actually happening and they're not just lying to us.
The short term funding wording is ambiguous. I think they're trying to agree it with the buyer, but know they may need to fall back on player sales.
Re the funding, that's how I read it, given its in the same sentence as the takeover.
SutekhMid Sussex RoyalWestYorksRoyal I'd rate as a positive update. I don't really know what the stop notice means, but its removal suggests work is actually happening and they're not just lying to us.
The short term funding wording is ambiguous. I think they're trying to agree it with the buyer, but know they may need to fall back on player sales.
Re the funding, that's how I read it, given its in the same sentence as the takeover.
The stop notice is the issue with that Haitong bank being able to take ownership of the SCL in lieu of payments due. Therefore presume someone must have baled Dai out and paid off that debt Haitong were owed. It should indeed make the sale of the club go easier.
rabidbeeSutekhMid Sussex Royal
Re the funding, that's how I read it, given its in the same sentence as the takeover.
The stop notice is the issue with that Haitong bank being able to take ownership of the SCL in lieu of payments due. Therefore presume someone must have baled Dai out and paid off that debt Haitong were owed. It should indeed make the sale of the club go easier.
That seems unlikely. I wondered whether they’d negotiated transferring the collateral for the debt to other (Chinese-based?) properties in his portfolio, which might be more attractive to the bank.
Either way, doesn’t matter much to us, just good that one block on the deal has apparently been removed.
M&A Murmurs
There was noise last week that Dai Yongge had paid back the troublesome loan taken out on Reading’s stadium that had played a part in nixing any takeover in the EFL’s longest-running saga. There was also talk of a “man in the background” who was ready to buy the club, and it isn’t Rob Couhig, whose legal action against Yongge continues.
A club statement on December 30 confirmed that "the ‘Stop Notice’ charge in place against the Select Car Leasing Stadium [is] now removed.”
Which doesn’t mean the loan was necessarily paid back (with onlookers wondering how that would have happened) but for Reading’s purposes it is no longer an obstacle, or as the club described it: “one external factor which had caused delay has subsequently been resolved.”
As for the mystery buyer, even less detail.
“Whilst the club understands our supporters' desire for the identity of the purchaser to be confirmed, at this stage confidentiality must remain in place for the benefit of all parties.”
The club’s update was vague but its content was positive. Having won three in a row under new manager Noel Hunt, the sun could be starting to emerge from behind the clouds in Berkshire.
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