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News has broke that a consortium of investors has injected “significant investment capital” into Aston Villa.
The company, “NSWE”, is jointly owned and controlled by businessman Nassef Sawiri’s group NNS and businessman Wes Edens. Dr. Tony Xia will step into Co-Chairman and remain on the Aston Villa board.
Per the Club statement: The capital injection and transaction have been officially approved by the EFL and the parties will work through the last bit of confirmation approval to make the injection and investment concrete.
Nassef Sawiris is a 53 year old Egyptian business man, where most of his capital comes from his Orascom Construction Industries company. As of 2015, Sawiris’ net worth was set at $6.9 billion and is known to be one of the richest men in Egypt. Other business ventures of Sawiris’ are chemical plants and residential building. The Claret & View understands that Sawiris and his family faces tax evasion charges in 2013, with Nassef Sawiris facing three years in prison. Orascom Construction Industries came to an agreement to pay back the Egyptian tax authority in instalments between 2013 to 2017 and he was eventually acquitted of all charges. Sawiris also has several high-profile investments in Adidas, cement firm LafargeHolcim LTD and nitrogen-fertilizer company OCI NV, which is exclusively ran by Sawiris himself.
Wes Edens is the 56 year old co-founder of Fortress Investment Group. Fortress was founded in 1998 and is a $72 billion alternative asset management company based in New York but also has offices all over the world. Edens job with Fortress is managing the groups equity business which highly invests in infrastructure, transportation, health care, media and financial services. Edens is part-owner of National Basketball Leagues Milwaukee Bucks franchise. With partner Marc Lasry, the two men purchased the Bucks franchise for $550 million, promising the Bucks fans that the team will stay in Wisconsin and a new arena will be built to replace the aging BMO Harris Bradley Center.
While it is unclear at the time exactly how much capital these two men are prepared to pump into Aston Villa, what is clear that this injection could be the the 11th hour saving that Villa supporters were praying for. It is worth mentioning that this news is very fresh, and details will be coming thick and fast. It is not clear at the time what this deal means for Aston Villa and their Financial Fair Play problems. It would be unwise to assume that because of this new investment, certain players will not be sold at this time.
The Claret & View will be working hard to ensure when we have more information, you have more information as well.
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Words by Mark Jirobe (@VillaMarkPGH) // Follow us on Twitter @claretandview
Well done Tony Xia Lets go into the season with heads held high UTV