Valencia rescued by billionaire from Asia

A Spanish football club has been bought by the ninth-richest Singaporean, Peter Lim. He will clear the team’s debts and wants to complete the stadium.

Ten years ago, it was one of the most successful football clubs in Europe, playing in the Champions League final twice in a row and, at the start of the millennium, overtaking the more famous Real Madrid and Barcelona to win the Spanish title. Today, Valencia is burdened with hundreds of millions in debt, and for the first time in eight years, it failed to qualify for any European cup competition. The man set to pull the Spanish team out of its worst crisis in nearly two decades is its new majority owner. Singaporean billionaire Peter Lim recently became the 70% shareholder. The new management has for the first time revealed its plans for the former Champions League finalist. “For Peter, Valencia means much more than just a football adventure. We want to take the club to the highest level and make it an internationally strong brand again,” said the new club president, Lay Hoon Chan.

First goal? Repay debts
Valencia’s newly formed board includes seven people appointed by Lim, with only two holdovers from the previous leadership. One of them is former club president Amadeo Salvo. He revealed that the Singaporean businessman will invest over 300 million euros into the club in the coming period. The largest sum will go towards paying off the club’s debts, with additional millions earmarked for completing the new Mestalla stadium. Construction began in 2009, with 90 million euros already spent, but the global financial crisis halted the project. “Getting here cost us much more than we were originally willing to spend. But we made it, and we will be here for a very, very long time,” said club president Lay Hoon Chan after the first meeting of the new leadership. The fact is that billionaire Peter Lim had previously tried to acquire several top European clubs. In 2010, he failed in his bid to buy into Liverpool FC. He also couldn’t fulfil his dream of club ownership with Middlesbrough, Glasgow Rangers, or AC Milan. Peter Lim is known for avoiding any media attention, so it is almost certain that his plans will continue to be presented by the new club president.

Best time for business
In the five years since the crisis began, Valencia has been unable to halt its growing debt curve. This was despite selling top players such as David Villa, David Silva, and Roberto Soldado for multi-million transfer fees. For the previous shareholders, this was probably the perfect time to sell. “And it was also lucrative for the buyer. If Valencia had been in good financial condition, it would probably have cost the interested party much more,” Slovak football agent Jozef Tokos told the Economic Daily. Valencia is now the third club in the last four years to be rescued by one of the richest people in the world. Four years ago, debt-ridden Deportivo La Coruña was taken over by Amancio Ortega, and around the same time, Málaga was acquired by Sheikh Abdullah Bin Nasser Al-Thani. “The entry of a Singaporean entrepreneur is simply a continuation of the trend in which top clubs from England and Spain are the focus of interest for investors from Asia and the Middle East,” notes Jozef Tokos. In terms of success, Valencia has been the third most successful Spanish club over the past two decades, right behind Real Madrid and FC Barcelona.