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Meeting Liu Xingcheng
Liu Xingcheng is the second largest shareholder in Birmingham International Holdings, owning some fourteen per cent of the company and thus the club. He has never before spoken to the press until today – when he spoke to myself and Matthew from Tilton Strugglers
Liu Xingcheng
Mr Liu works in investment in mainland China, and he took on the shareholding in Birmingham International Holdings as repayment for a debt owed to him by Carson Yeung.
Despite no fans knowing who Liu is, he has been to Birmingham on more than one occasion to watch matches at St Andrews and has introduced various government officials to the board of directors there. He told me that he liked Birmingham a lot and he had enjoyed his visits to the ground.
Liu confirmed that he had known Carson for a long time – since 1997 – and that his wife Zhou Xin is the sister of a longstanding girlfriend of Carson’s called Zhou Dan. As it was someone who was in his family in all practicality who owned BIH he was happy to leave it in Carson’s hands and stay hands-off.
However, Liu also told me that he whilst he was happy initially to leave his investment in the company in the hands of the BIH board, he had found recent performance unsatisfactory and that he had decided to speak out to protect his rights as an individual shareholder. He confirmed that he was alarmed by some of the reports that had broken in the press about the losses made by the company and by the salaries of executives such as Peter Pannu.
Obviously, with the AGM coming up at the start of next month Mr Liu has decided that he wants to take a lead in ensuring the company is run right and has confirmed to me that he will be voting against the re-election of Pannu and Yeung as executive directors.
Whilst fans who are unhappy with the owners have very little chance of influencing them on an individual basis, Liu is in a position to make his displeasure made clear to the board. As I have said in the past, whilst Yeung and Pannu have nothing but what I would think as a moral obligation to be fair and transparent to us, they have a statutory obligation to ensure that their shareholders investment is protected and that the company is run in a way that is profitable to those who have put their money into it.
This interview would not have been possible without the help of the Blues Trust, whose work in contacting key BIH shareholders and building a rapport with them has allowed me to sit in on some meetings with some key people whilst I’m out here.
Tags: Liu Xingcheng
47 Responses to “Meeting Liu Xingcheng”
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Does Liu have any finance himself? Just curious loike.
Lets hope that they all vote against Carson and pannu and boot them out,seems like no confidence in them out there as back here as well,mr pannu the net is closing you mug….
What a bloody mess.
Even if Mr Liu & Co were succesful at next months BIH AGM in halting the re-election of Pannu and Yeung as executive directors , where that would leave BCFC ?
Amazing work. Sounds like a good guy – hope he sticks to his word.
Keep up the work Dan (and others!)
KRO
Congratulations Daniel;, You, both sought and took the oppertunity to interview one man who could,
[ Possibly ] influance a shake-up in B,I,H.
Did you get a feeling that this chap is possibly one who could/would influance a sale of Blues,?. or merely seeking to protect his shares in the light of poor management by B,I,H.but would prefer the continued ownership, ??.
Scoop! You’ve earned that Bronx hat.
Seems that someone has that age old problem some have,,,,,,,You cant chose your family,,,,,but can chose your friends ,,,,,,,,,even if its your wifes sisters boyfriend !,,,,,I am glad however its Yeung,s girlfriend,,,,,,just the thought of “Pannu” BREEDING!! makes me ill [ let alone having Friends }
“Mr Liu works in investment in mainland China, and he took on the shareholding in Birmingham International Holdings as repayment for a debt owed to him by Carson Yeung.”
Oops. I wonder how many other shareholders are in that position.
Incidentally, it mirrors Chainrai’s interest in Portsmouth – he basically tried to take over to get loans he’d made to Gaydamak repaid. Ended up with Chainrai owning the ground. Albeit there were different circumstances. Chainrai could not enforce against Gaydamak’s Israeli assets so looked overseas.
Its just all smoke and mirrors as per usual.
Dan i cant tell you how grateful i and the rest of the Blues fans are to you and te trust for all your hard work. You really are treu bluenose. I know you must have asked him if he had the backing and inclination take the club on, go on, what did he say?
If you dont mind me asking, are you self funding the trips to Hong Kong? Are you a Birmingham resident?
All I can say is, splendid work by the Blues Trust and Often Partisan.
To all those idiots who spoke about doing this, that and the other and berating the solid, quiet, fruitful work of others such as making contact with this Xingcheng fellow, hope you will be big and man enough to acknowledge what is/has being done.
To be the first to make contact with this guy who previously has not spoken to the press, is a real coup and a sterling effort. It would seem that there will be serious questions to answer in the BIH meeting and senior shareholders share the same concerns as some of us supporters.
I hope that someone like this chap will again visit BCFC and take a more “hands-on” approach at BIH and look into the machinations at our club. He seems like a switched-on fella who could make a change for the better.
Here’s to hopefully the beginning of the end of the staus quo…
don’t forget Matthew of Tilton Strugglers, he’s been a diamond this week
And to the 24 carat fella………
[…] you may well know, from our tweets earlier today, or even Often Partisan’s article, little known Liu Xingcheng is Birmingham City’s second largest shareholder, with a […]
In one word ..grateful ..many thanks for what you are doing for OP and the fans.
(both of you!)
Al – well done on getting to speak to Mr Liu. I cannot believe the lengths you and Matthew have gone to in order to get info on what’s going on in Hong Kong. Some of the moaners on this blog should be slobbering with gratitude at your sterling service of getting to the bottom of things.
Can I just say to u both going out there doing great research and feeding back this information to us fellow noses what a gr8 job u doing its a sterling effort and also to anyone else who funded it. Well done k.r.o
Also his holding up the same scarf as I have love it !!
Well done to all concerned getting to meet and speak to these people is such an impressive achievement. Have you managed to ask any questions relating to PP comments regarding SELLING the club or finding new investors?
Good on the lads for going there, above and beyond the call of duty that. But if yeung and pannu get voted off, no one it seems has or ever will step forward to invest or run BCFC which will leave us totally rudderless and leave us in a portsmouth situation. The sale of the club and the whole sorry lot of them doing one will be our only salvation.
Thanks for Dan and Matt’s efforts on covering this and if you haven’t joined the Blues Trust, then Dan’s comments about the hard work the trust have done as well, should damn well make you get off your backside and join.
http://www.bluestrust.org/
well done boys – like i keep saying join the trust for a fiver. A united, strong fan base cannot be ignored – we need to get 7500 members in and buy shares etc aka pompey/swansea
You guys achievements are fantastic. I hope you are being paid by the Mail for your articles or they are contributing to your expenses.
Did you get the feeling that LX was business savvy more akin to a DS/DG? Do you think he has the wherewithal to garner enough support to remove CY and PP as Directors?
Is PP around and if so are you planning to meet or avoid him?
Blues trust membership is still under 500 come on we can do better than that
A membership of under 500 simply means the trust has next to no bargaining power in comparison to the 7,500 as stated. I’m not sure of what the actual numbers the trust needs, but if we get crowds of 13,000 to 15,000 as an idea of season ticket holders, then it’s obvious the word is falling on deaf ears ..or those who simply expect glory and a good moaning session and invent facts or do not want to be aware of the work the trust actually does.
I’m glad to be a part of it really.
Did you give him the scarf or did he have one with him? Who are the board members who met gov officials? Theres only carsons 18 year old son on the board in Brum!!!!!
Another smoke and mirror session,
Thanks for the great work but this club is going the way of Pompey its so ovbious we are up the creek, the club is now a cash cow supporting board members of BIH and I still urge everyone to NOT get a season ticket next season.
Great work lets hope he can persuade shareholders of BIHL to overthrow Carson.
Congratulations on getting this interview – glad that you didn’t just give up when the case got adjourned, and go on the lash, and instead managed to track down a face behind BIHL. I’m certainly not as confident as others here that this guy offers any sort of solution, I mean, what else would he say other than that he wants to sort the club out?
However, this endorses the mere fiver I spent on joining the Blues Trust (everybody join – together we are stronger!), and I’m not surprised with Almajir turning this up. And I’ve now bookmarked Tilton Strugglers as well to stay even more in touch!
Kepp it up, hopefully you can get some more scoops this week…
Just sell the bloody club!!! Fantastic work by the way.
Good work guys
Would like to join everyone else in expressing gratitude and admiration to Al and Matthew. I do have a concern that one of our major shareholders hasnt read critical information in the public domain!
Well done chaps. Brums own Bernstein & woodward. A lap of honour v blackbur n is called for.
I can only echo the praise for Al & co. It appears to me that Mr Liu is in a position to move a vote of no-confidence in the board of BIH. Has he got the numbers?
Great work lads, If pannu was voted out would this chap have any influence over who is elected? Or could carson just put in another one from his inner circle?
a power struggle just what we need……. and this power struggle appears to be within the family circle….. I suppose….just maybe carson got the full backing from other members within BIH… we will see shortly shortly how this panns out…. without doubt Dan this not going to be plain sailing as some fans thought…… I stand correct , carson is fully within his rights to maintain what ever level of support until proven guilty………….. maybe friday appearance will shred further light on this subject , and having the judge opinion will hopefully outline this….. I will continue to support carson until proven guilty… its others people opinion if they chose otherwise…………..kro
So by default then you are supporting CY’s decisions such as odd payments to Asia Rays and PP. Open your eyes to the reality around you mate.
Great info coming out of Hong Kong by you and the others. keep up the good work.
Keep up all the good work and communication – investigative journalism at its best well done lads. BCFC Are desperate for new owners and major investment asap…. Birmingham are forging some major business links with China (through the motor industry). Its a new growth market has an expanding economy with a appetite for Western culture. Surly a shroud savvy business man with an eye for a deal can recognise the synergies and invest in the and long term potential of BCFC? KRO
Atahualpa you seem to be overcome with emotion that one of the major BCFC shareholders has actually been traced, albeit discovered in the HK Travelodge by the looks of the photo. It seems that he is relying upon press reports to find out what is going on in the company that he has millions invested in – he’s no Alan Sugar is he?
Almajir says we are relying on Yeung’s moral and statutory obligations. Let’s hope that he’s a jolly decent fellow. Well given that the guy is charged with multiple counts of serious criminal activity, I think it’s fair to say that if this is what we are relying on, then we’re f*cked!
Your actions speak louder than any words can. Inspirational. KRO lads.
So just let me get this right, our second biggest share holder was given these share because he was owed a debt by the biggest share holder? Can we take it that many of our share holders are in a similar position. In other words, we are just a vehicle for paying off CYs debts.
I know we all kind of suspected that, but this guy is the proof. Surely this is all part of the evidence to send him down. If you pay off your debts with no money then you can’t be paying tax.
Also, this guy might have no money at all. CY had his money and gave him worthless (suspended) shares instead. Not sure he is a great businessman.
Neideleuk – Liu Xingcheng became a shareholder in 2009, when the shares weren’t suspended and certainly weren’t worthless…
This guy is just working for Carson yeung
And all his business are related to Carson yeung so I don’t think he is able to manage the club and barely could run the club by him
He rarely come to the match and he doesn’t even know football much
On either financial or football wise he has got no ability to bring us to bounce back from the championship
I think as with Carson Yeung when he only had 19% in the Gold/Sullivan era- less than 20% is good but doesn’t give you a seat on the board. Liu Xingcheng will need to purchase some more shares to effect any change possibly.
Peter Pannu quote ”
As far as I know, having met him in China and in the UK, Mr. Liu does not speak any English and I want to compliment the UK press for being able to speak to him in Mandarin and to get his points across accurately, I hope, as reported.