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Carson – Not as Skint as We Thought?
During the long-running saga of the sale of Birmingham City FC by Birmingham International Holdings there has been the question as to how much time Carson and BIH have left until they run out of cash. Much has been made of the fact his assets in Hong Kong are frozen, that the banks are looking to repossess his house on the Peak and that he has to raise a large amount of money for his legal team – with people linking the sale of the club to his own desperate need for cash. However, new evidence uncovered by this site points to the fact that Carson isn’t quite as skint as we first thought.
In my previous investigations into Carson and his life I have concentrated on his life in Hong Kong. However, it is worth remembering that Carson also has property in this country and with this in mind I have spent the last few weeks looking into details with regards to that. There have been some interesting findings.
Carson bought a property in South West London in 2007 – a month after launching his initial bid to buy Birmingham City football club, spending £15million on his initial 29.9% stake. The property was bought for a shade under £5million in cash – much like the way he bought his house on Barker Road in 2005.
What is most interesting about the property is unlike his houses in the former colony, this is unencumbered by mortgages and has no asset freeze order placed against it. Despite all of his money worries the house has not been up for sale at all since he has bought it – which if you think about how desperate he’s seemed for cash recently a cool £5mil (which the house is still currently worth) would probably help him out of a massive hole somewhat. It also gives me a lot of hope that the long-held belief that BCFC will not be affected by Carson’s case (should it still be owned by him whilst it’s going through) seems to be confirmed as it appears the HK judiciary have been unable or unwilling to freeze his assets outside of Hong Kong.
The documents obtained from the Land Registry also throw up a new name from the web of connections spawned from Carson – Dan Zhou. According to the documents Carson and Mr Zhou own the property together – which if you cast your mind back to the defence that Carson’s wife and mother have launched against the bank repossessing his house on the Peak sounds eerily familiar. One would have to ask just how much of that money Carson ponied up himself – is it a 50/50 split or has Carson got his name down on a fancy house because someone liked his face? So far investigations into who this Dan Zhou is have been inconclusive.
What does this mean for Blues? Well, for my money the first thing it means is that we now know for sure Blues isn’t his single solitary unencumbered asset any more. I’ve continually stated that no money has left the club for Hong Kong and that was strongly reaffirmed to me at the Supporters Club Forum on Tuesday. It’s entirely possible that Carson may think about disposing of or mortgaging this property to raise the funds he needs for his criminal trial rather than raiding Birmingham City – although of course that would require the consent of the mysterious Mr Zhou.
The hope is that whilst takeover talks continue we won’t need to worry too much about what Carson has done and is doing in the near future but in the meantime I’m going to take the positives from this that people’s fears of Carson stripping what he can out of BCFC to pay for his fees may now be somewhat relieved. I’m of the belief that the more information we have on Carson and/or BIH, the more we can work out what is likely to happen – especially in the event that a sale doesn’t go through.
Tags: Carson Yeung, Dan Zhou
36 Responses to “Carson – Not as Skint as We Thought?”
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good work mate, recommend looking at the link on the Guardian website about Paladini, Michael Hann’s introduction to “Four Year Plan” the fly on the wall documentary on QPR when it was run by Briatore and Ecclestone. Hope that there is someone out there better than Paladini, after all it is Christmas:-)
Fascinating ..to state a phrase by Sheldon off the Big Bang Theory!!!!
Sheldon was actually quoting Mr Spock from Star Trek :o)
Am I the only one then that NEVER thought Carson was skint?, the man’s far too clever for that. KRO
Don’t take this the wrong way Dan cos that’s great research but so what?
He half owns a £5m house? Same as he quarter owns our club. Is he a front man?
Remember the trial is not a money laundering one but more of a prove your wealth one the judge says so he’ll have to account for this property at some stage. I wouldn’t mind wagering that his name is all over the place ‘part-owning’ stuff.
Very interesting article especially as Dan Zhou is highly likely to be a woman’s name In China.
These money guys always have a back up plan for personal survival.
Good Work as usual,
Happy Xmas to Everyone.
I appreciate (if you have it) that you won’t give out the address but I’m curious where in SW London this property is?
Anyone can access, try land registry
I do have it, and you’re right I won’t give it out.
SW London is about as precise as I’m going to get.
I’m guessing Wimbledon,there are some nice houses round that way.
When you say £5m cash,i’m sure you don’t actually mean cash,who walks about with that in their back pocket,or more realistically you would need a van to carry it around!.
Not sure I see the relevance here. David Sullivan had a big house. So did David Gold. Why should he sell it to put money into Blues? Yeung has already mortgaged his property in Hong Kong to put money in the club
Once again great research from the first place site I visit everyday. Thank you for all your hard work.
Good work Dan!
I have passed this information on to the relevant authorities in Hong Kong
comment edited due to libellious nature of comments. – almajir
Can’t help thinking CY has been set up as some form of patsy by bigger fish. He doesn’t appear to do anything off his own back, there are always other unknown or secretive parties involved, and no one seems to have any clue as to how much he is worth or where his money came from. Interesting few months ahead I think.
Is this house in addition to the one bought for his son to live in while at school or another ?,,,,,,Prices in Sunningdale [which is NOT S.W London ] are very high as well
Nice piece of investigative work Almajir, and I do not believe anyone has yet made a link with any assets of CY’s here in the UK or discovered what he has/n’t.
The comment by prewarblue is probably quite close to the mark in the sense that it – the property – has something to do with Ryan Yeung’s stay in the capital and this Dan Zhou individual is connected to someone that Ryan studies or studied with.
If we take what we know, CY has invested £20m for his stake in Blues (25%), he loaned BCFC over £13m with another close to £8m through BIHL and I believe most of this was from him as well considering he is the driving force of the company, his home on The Peak in HK being worth about £30m albeit with a mortgage, his frozen assets and now his investments and dealings are being uncovered here. He probably is worth in the region of about £80-90m which incorporates all his assets and liquidity. This is all a totally rough, rough estimate without any solid evidence but I also reckon that is why he considers BCFC to be worth in the region of £40m because that covers his outlay.
I truly believe that CY’s ‘wealth’ more than likely is pooled with relatives, friends and associates and he has acted as the spearhead in trying to make all stakeholders wealthy.
I think Carson Yeung is starting to show the signs of a fantastic chairman – he has really won me over with Lee Clark and a revitalised Birmingham City side. I think that with the addition of a few more Chinese players in January and we will be right up there.
Who is the mysterious black country chinaman Dudley Zhou? That’s what I wanna know.
Your mouth must be very sore JakeyBlue with having your tongue in your cheek for so long!!
It’s a great pity that Tom Ross and Tatts don’t show the same investigative skills as Almajir..
What a waste of space they are.
I still think that with one last roll of the dice we can crack the Chinese market. Just think of the publicity the Yeung case will receive, if we can follow that up with a Summer tour, we might just find that this is not the Pannu pantomime after all.
Frederico I must congratulate you, you are spot-on. There are 1,344,130,000 people in China. Roughtly 765,000,000 of these are football supporters, of whom approximately 365,000,000 are only interested in Premier league top 4. Now if we assume that of the remaining 400,000,000, say 10% might be interested in Midlands-based clubs, and that BCFC could secure 25% of that market…this would give is 1,000,000 extra supporters my friend. Think about it – we would need a stadium the size of Greater London. It just needs that little bit of luck.
You know replying to yourself with another name is bad form, don’t you?
Especially when it’s a regular contributor who is using two fake names…
Almajir . this is far more interesting than CY’s finances…
Name names….who is the regular contributor replying to his own posts ?
We can set the boo boys on him :-)
I think Dong Falgzhuo would come to Blues and would be an ideal partner for Marlon King. Zigic to play in the number 10 role as the creative midfielder. Imagine the revenue from shirt sales alone.
He has a house in London. So What! The main financial issue Carson has regarding BCFC is the money he has loaned to the club. £14m approx? Any prospective new owner has to deal with that and the Yang loan too
Actually, you’re incorrect.
If BCFC is bought by someone then the Yang Yuezhou money would be immaterial as that was lent to BIHL and not BCFC…
Interesting!! BCFC still would have £20+ m to pay off though.
Depends. I suspect any deal to buy BCFC will include a writing down of some of the debts – I doubt very much they’ll get the full whack.
Sounds reasonable.Paladini group got BIHL by the balls here.
googling Dan Zhou brings 196 possibilities – or is it Zhou dan!!
I think you will find Dan Zhou is a woman.
Do some research on his yacht in Hong Kong, he took the academy guys on a couple of years ago, this has not been sold and again this luxurious beast has to be worth millions. Also Any man who can raise £80+ million has massive wealth and influence. Also his case in Hong Kong, the prosecution are still gathering evidence and approaching further possible witnesses, not such a cut and dry case in my eyes.. Dont be all all surprised if the club is not sold.
you going to think i am crazy but i think Peter Pannu is a scapegoat i dont think he knows the full direness of the situation i say CY is user where the hll did these different hong kong consortium’s come from i have no proof but i think CY is using the Hong Kong interested parties to keep his hands very close to the club