Simon Sadler 17:51 - Jun 9 with 9664 views | BringBackTheRedRoom | Think it needs its own thread now...... Simon Sadler - the Hong Kong-based businessman thought to be the frontrunner to take over Blackpool Football Club - has set up two new UK-based companies relating to sports. Rose 123 Investments and Lily 123 Investments were both incorporated on May 29, 2019, according to Companies House. Both are registered to an address in Altrincham, Cheshire, while a man named Brett Gerrity - thought to be a solicitor - is listed as an interested person in both companies. Under the nature of business, Rose 123 Investments is described as “activities of sports clubs” while Lily 123 Investments is described as “operations of sports facilities and hotels”. Sadler, who was born in Bispham and attended Warbreck High, founded Hong Kong-based hedge fund Segantii Capital. It is claimed the hedge fund’s assets are in excess of $1billion. Sadler, who attended the home game against Peterborough United in April, is thought to be keen to keep current board members Ben Hatton and Michael Bolingbroke at the club. Receiver Paul Cooper, of Rubin and Partners, told The Gazette on first arriving at Bloomfield Road in February that the entire sale process would likely take three to four months. It’s understood mid-June is the target the club are working towards, meaning news could be forthcoming in the next week or two. Sadler was featured in an old article in The Gazette on May 22, 2010 - the day the Seasiders sealed their remarkable promotion to the Premier League with a 3-2 win over Cardiff City in the Championship play-off final. It included an interview with Sadler, then aged 40, previewing that famous day at Wembley. The story reads: “Did you know there was a hedge fund on the stock market in Asia named after Blackpool? You do now. “And the man who operates it is a Seasider who has flown back to the UK to watch the big game. “Bispham-born Simon Sadler, a former Warbreck High pupil, was a regular in the old West Paddock throughout the 80s, watching the likes of Eamonn O’Keefe and Paul Stewart, as well as his all time favourite Oooh Andy Garner. “Trips to Bloomfield Road became a bit of a problem though as his banking career flourished and he moved to Moscow and then Hong Kong. “The 40-year-old operates a hedge fund which is the fifth largest in Asia - Segantii Capital — named after the original tribe of Blackpool and which has a tangerine and white corporate colour.” https://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/sport/football/blackpool-fc/hong-kong-based-b and here's the link to Companies House https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/12022758 | |
| ‘Where there is harmony, may we bring discord. Where there is truth, may we bring error. Where there is faith, may we bring doubt. And where there is hope, may we bring despair’ |
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Simon Sadler on 14:38 - Jul 1 with 1318 views | Lala |
Simon Sadler on 14:34 - Jul 1 by spell_chekker | Wow if he's planning to invest £10m over the next 5 years on top of what he's already shelled out to buy the club. That's a the very top end of my expectations. I like the noises being made. Invest in the club and it's infrastructure, not marquee signings. Do that and it will eventually all click into place. |
Agreed Spell. As Red alluded to the guy is about as financially astute as they come. Personally I think we have hit the bloody jackpot, what more can we possibly have asked for but a homegrown millionaire business man with a shared passion for the club and the will to invest | |
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Simon Sadler on 14:46 - Jul 1 with 1310 views | spell_chekker |
Simon Sadler on 14:38 - Jul 1 by Lala | Agreed Spell. As Red alluded to the guy is about as financially astute as they come. Personally I think we have hit the bloody jackpot, what more can we possibly have asked for but a homegrown millionaire business man with a shared passion for the club and the will to invest |
As well as that Lala, at times I've found the process frustrating but only out of curiosity. Wanting to know who the bidder was and what his plans are etc. But I for one really appreciate his way of doing things. Considered and thoughtful, discreet, gets the job done without any fuss, an ethos of doing things the right way and through the right channels. All this and with no hangers on. | |
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Simon Sadler on 15:12 - Jul 1 with 1301 views | spell_chekker | Simon Sadler Arrives At Bloomfield Road New Owner Speaks To Media And Gets Set To Meet Fans New Blackpool Football Club owner Simon Sadler has been outlining his plans for the future at Bloomfield Road today. Sadler, who purchased 96.2% of the shares in the club last month, addressed staff and spoke to the media about becoming the club's new custodian, as well as his memories of being a supporter on the terraces. Tonight he will also meet supporters at an invitation-only Fans' Forum, which was previously advertised on the official website. A video interview with the new owner will be available to watch later this evening. | |
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Simon Sadler on 15:46 - Jul 1 with 1289 views | Lala |
I love what I see. Really excited for the future of our club 👠| |
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Simon Sadler on 16:10 - Jul 1 with 1287 views | BringBackTheRedRoom |
Simon Sadler on 15:46 - Jul 1 by Lala | I love what I see. Really excited for the future of our club 👠|
Reading the quotes so far, really impressed. One thing, he doesn't mention a figure of £10 million, just that it will be 8 figures over 5 years. Could be a lot more than £10 million. (Unless like me he counts the pence behind the decimal point ). | |
| ‘Where there is harmony, may we bring discord. Where there is truth, may we bring error. Where there is faith, may we bring doubt. And where there is hope, may we bring despair’ |
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Simon Sadler on 16:44 - Jul 1 with 1280 views | spell_chekker |
Simon Sadler on 16:10 - Jul 1 by BringBackTheRedRoom | Reading the quotes so far, really impressed. One thing, he doesn't mention a figure of £10 million, just that it will be 8 figures over 5 years. Could be a lot more than £10 million. (Unless like me he counts the pence behind the decimal point ). |
Taken from an Askam tweet at the bottom of page 4 of this thread: "New Blackpool owner Simon Sadler has told me he plans to invest 8 figures ( ten million pounds ) over the next 5 years" of course £99,999,999 is 8 figures. | |
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Simon Sadler on 16:58 - Jul 1 with 1277 views | BringBackTheRedRoom |
Simon Sadler on 16:44 - Jul 1 by spell_chekker | Taken from an Askam tweet at the bottom of page 4 of this thread: "New Blackpool owner Simon Sadler has told me he plans to invest 8 figures ( ten million pounds ) over the next 5 years" of course £99,999,999 is 8 figures. |
Lazy journalism in my book, putting in an amount when he didn't specify one. | |
| ‘Where there is harmony, may we bring discord. Where there is truth, may we bring error. Where there is faith, may we bring doubt. And where there is hope, may we bring despair’ |
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Simon Sadler on 17:21 - Jul 1 with 1272 views | janegallagher |
Me too LaLa and as spell says no hangers on too. We’re lucky to have him. 👠| |
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Simon Sadler on 18:03 - Jul 1 with 1262 views | spell_chekker |
Simon Sadler on 17:21 - Jul 1 by janegallagher | Me too LaLa and as spell says no hangers on too. We’re lucky to have him. 👠|
Tuning in to Radio Lancs now. | |
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Simon Sadler on 18:24 - Jul 1 with 1256 views | spell_chekker |
Very impressive. What else can you say about that interview? | |
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Simon Sadler on 18:25 - Jul 1 with 1256 views | BringBackTheRedRoom |
Ticked all the boxes for me in that Radio Lancs interview. | |
| ‘Where there is harmony, may we bring discord. Where there is truth, may we bring error. Where there is faith, may we bring doubt. And where there is hope, may we bring despair’ |
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Simon Sadler on 18:36 - Jul 1 with 1251 views | spell_chekker |
Simon Sadler on 18:25 - Jul 1 by BringBackTheRedRoom | Ticked all the boxes for me in that Radio Lancs interview. |
A couple of points from the interview. He's very keen on building an academy and developing young talent. Some work will be done on Squires Gate and it will have to tide us over until a new training complex is built in 2/3 years. The budget is bigger than last seaon's. It's comfortably in the top 10 budgets in the division and probably pushing top 5. Promotion to the championship is the objective if not this season, then next, he'd be very disappointed if we weren't promoted by the season after that at the latest. Wants entertaining football. My interpretation - McPhillips knows what the on field objectives are and if he doesn't deliver or a least show promising progress he'll be on his bike (Sadler was gentlemanly about this but it appeared to me to be what he was saying). | |
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Simon Sadler on 18:40 - Jul 1 with 1249 views | Lala |
Simon Sadler on 18:25 - Jul 1 by BringBackTheRedRoom | Ticked all the boxes for me in that Radio Lancs interview. |
We love him | |
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Simon Sadler on 18:49 - Jul 1 with 1244 views | spell_chekker | New Blackpool owner Simon Sadler: ‘I’m doing it for the greater good’ by David Conn Local man takes over after Owen Oyston’s toxic reign, saying: ‘Blackpool matters to me, this club matters to me’ https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/jul/01/new-blackpool-owner-simon-sadle If Blackpool supporters who fought the arduous campaign against Owen Oyston’s toxic ownership ever fantasised about the ideal alternative, they may have imagined a figure not very different to Simon Sadler, a local lad made good and the club’s new owner. The 49-year-old grew up in Blackpool, was taken to his first match by his father as a boy in 1977, and spent his formative years on Bloomfield Road’s west paddock with Brett Gerrity, whom he met as a teenager when they had summer jobs renting out deckchairs. Through a financial career first in the City then for 20 years in Hong Kong where he runs a hedge fund, Segantii, with $3.5bn under management, Sadler has not lost a note of his accent, and the Tangerines remained an anchor of home. On an emotional first visit to the club since he bought it from receivers for £10m on 13 June, Sadler tries to remain diplomatic and limit himself to describing as “sad” the Oyston tenure, during which he and Gerrity joined the vast majority of fans who observed a four-year boycott of home matches called by the supporters’ trust. Football League: Blackpool fans return to celebrate dramatic equaliser “You can use a whole load of words — it was disgraceful, whatever you want,” he concedes, “but more than anything else, it was just really, really sad.” A high court judge found in November 2017 that after Blackpool’s modern high point, the single 2010-11 season in the Premier League, the Oystons had “illegitimately stripped” the club of £26.77m while the team and club were drained of investment. That led to the appointment of receivers, Paul Cooper and David Rubin, on behalf of Valeri Belokon, the joint shareholder to whom the Oystons were ordered to pay the same sum, plus his original £4.5m investment in the club. Sadler, not having to deal directly with the Oystons to buy it, and encouraged by Gerrity, now a senior prosecutor with the Crown Prosecution Service in the north west, resolved to grasp the opportunity. “There are three parts to it,” he says of becoming his club’s owner. “One is the realisation of a childhood dream — although it’s beyond a childhood dream. Two, I think it’s going to be really enjoyable; I really relish the challenge, I want to get stuck in. I’ve proved I can build a hedge fund, I’ve learned an awful lot in my 28-year business career, I’m sure a lot of it is applicable to the world of football. “Three, there is a civic duty. Somebody had to step up and become the custodian of this club, to make sure that future generations can come here and watch a match, like I did with my dad.” The rebuilding work will need a minimum further investment of £10m, he says, and he returns repeatedly to the glaring lack of training facilities. While the Oystons built a hotel next to the stadium, the first team have been training for years on two local pitches which do not even have a changing block or any permanent buildings. “Having been up to the Premiership, it’s just sad to see how little investment appears to have happened, compared to the amount of money that was in the club,” Sadler says. “I think, to take that money out when investment was needed, was … not the right thing to do. Why have a Travelodge, and not Championship-class training facilities?” The money to buy the club, which remains confidential but is said to be around £10m, is his own, not the hedge fund’s, he says, and the further investment required will also come from him personally, with no other investors. The manager, Terry McPhillips, who guided the team to 10th place through trying times last season, is to be retained on a new two-year contract, and Sadler hopes to finance new signings this summer as a statement that better times are ahead. Gerrity is a director; Steve Rowland, formerly the supporters’ trust secretary, has been appointed the club’s supporter liaison officer and Tim Fielding, a former trust chair who was sued by the Oystons, is an adviser to the board. Sadler acknowledges that football is not pure philanthropy and that with the proper investment and stewardship he could make money, particularly if the club reach the Premier League again, but he insists that is not his motivation. “I don’t want to sound like a messiah but there is a point where I am doing it for the greater good, to put something back,” he says. “Because I grew up here, I enjoyed growing up here, and I left, but I’ve always looked back. Cut me in half and I’m like a stick of Blackpool rock: Blackpool matters to me, and this club matters to me. And to have the opportunity to be the person that buys the club and rebuilds it: that’s a great opportunity. But it’s also a great responsibility.” [Post edited 1 Jul 2019 18:50]
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Simon Sadler on 20:58 - Jul 1 with 1230 views | BringBackTheRedRoom |
Winger signed, to be announced tomorrow, Director of Football to be appointed, new training academy within 3 years. Bugger me, he's taken a very big chunk out of my wish list. | |
| ‘Where there is harmony, may we bring discord. Where there is truth, may we bring error. Where there is faith, may we bring doubt. And where there is hope, may we bring despair’ |
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