Thought I'd start a thread regarding the ownership structure of WFC, just to see if anything changes going forward, or to see if anyone out there has any more information that might be interesting. All this information is in the public domain – namely on the Companies House website – but, while not wishing to do the mods' jobs for them, just thought it would be worth mentioning the importance of making sure any info posted is correct and that any comments are not defamatory. Some of this info may well be common knowledge to many but it was interesting to me that Gino Pozzo has never been a director of either the football club company or its holding company at any point. Watford Association Football Club Ltd Directors: Scott Duxbury, David Fransen, Stuart Timperley, Peter Wastall 75% or more is owned by Hornets Investment Ltd Hornets Investment Limited Directors: Scott Duxbury, Damiano Jarmorini, Marco Juri 75% or more is owned by Gino Pozzo (correspondence address 38 Craven Street, London) Marco Juri is also a director of Long Street Development, a company which lists its nature of business with Companies House as 'Sale of used cars and light motor vehicles' and 'Buying and selling of own real estate'. The other current director of Long Street Development is Spaniard Carla Polo Biosca, with a correspondence address of 38 Craven Street, London (the same as Gino Pozzo's – it's a business address in London and is correspondence address for a host of companies). Anyway, I am 99% sure Carla Biosca is Gino Pozzo's wife. If anyone knows one way or other for sure, please let me know. If this information is incorrect, I will delete and clarify. The only other past director of Long Street Development is Lorenzo Gallucci. Gallucci is currently director of Fidentis Advisors. A past director of Fidentis Advisors is Raffaele Riva, former director of both Watford Association Football Club and Hornets Investment.
stupid question but if pozzo is looking for outside investment, would that be in Hornets investment limited presumably rather than watford association football club directly?
It's not a stupid question – it's a good question. Who knows. What I'd like to know is how much Pozzo has lent, to which company and what's it secured against. Also, what's his favourite cheese?
i read somewhere he’s invested 60m….I’m guessing that will expect to be paid back with interest when the business is sold rather than being an EJ gift (which Petchey stole)
Again, not 100% sure on this either, but isn't a large chunk of the investment distilled within the stadium as a whole? I don't know much about capital investment but if the worst happened and we went into Liquidation the stadium would be sold as leverage to cover some of the costs? I do know Barclays used to be involved with us, however not sure how much of our current business is though them. What is most concerning/alarming to me, is the fact we had to borrow 16M to stay afloat? According to Duxbury "Don't worry our debt is managable..." - so what would of happened if we never got that money? We really are in the brown stuff right now. We have no money, can only get one more loan as a transfer (I think), and are stuck with a squad who just don't care. Rebuild? Dismantle more like.
Good question - guess you'd want to invested in the club itself so you get a say over how much Watford attempt/need to borrow from holding company? Plus you'll be less diluted by the Pozzo goons who have a stake in holding co? Not sure to be honest.
Hornets Investment (which is majority owned by Pozzo) owns more than 75% of Watford FC so any investment in Watford FC would require Pozzo's agreement anyway. Investment in WFC would dilute Hornets Investment's share but presumably it'd need a significant wedge to get anywhere close to reducing Pozzo's influence below 50%. I'm guessing here but isn't Pozzo looking for investors who are happy to put money in but not have a majority stake?
This is probably the key to knowing what is going on at the club, the connected businesses and who they connect to.
I know it was posted on Twitter previously, but has anyone got the flow of how Bayat is also linked through vested interests and subsidiaries to Hornet Investment.
There are also registered companies in Luxembourg of the same name https://opencorporates.com/companies/lu/B168632, and similar - e.g. 'Gespar SpA' (Udinese) an Diversify Sport Investment https://opencorpdata.com/lei/9845007A0613CFGC4057
Hopefully to clarify...... Watford Association Football Club Ltd (Watford FC) is 99.7% owned by Hornets Investment Ltd (HIL) HIL is in turn ultimately owned by the Luxembourg entity Diversity Sport Investments Sarl (DSI) through an intermediate company in Luxembourg called Hornets Management Sarl (Hornets Mgt) So the flow is DSI owns Hornets Mgt which owns HIL which owns Watford FC. With all corporate ownerships at, or materially at, 100%. 21st Century football ownership at its finest. My personal opinion is that talk on any other Directors named is only a distraction in financial/legal/ownership terms as Watford FC is ultimately solely GP's and GP's alone. To sell some of our football club..... If GP wishes to dilute his ownership he theoretically could do so at any of the company levels. However, assuming Luxembourg was chosen for tax efficiency reasons, I believe it makes sense that he would sell a stake in Hornets Mgt, diluting down to something still over 50%. Or alternatively he could sell the tangible fixed assets which I believe are principally the freehold and buildings of Vicarage Road. These were revalued upwards in 2020 by £62Million (yes £62Million!) and are currently carried in the books at £96Million (total). GP could use an asset sale to generate the cash to repay the loans back to the Luxembourg holding companies via Hornets Mgt currently standing at £50Million. But only if, and its a big "if", the fixed assets are no longer used as security against other loans as I am personally unclear (aka I lost track) if they still are used in this manner after recent loan movements with the likes of 23Capital, Barclays, Macquarie, Close Leasing etc. Hence back to selling a stake in Hornets Mgt appears more likely. If he wishes to sell. I suspect we need to wait for the detail of his next public announcement due in 2032. NB: all info is correct as per June 2021. I am not aware of changes in the past fiscal to the ownership structure but happy to be corrected as necessary.
Before I am accused of anything I stress that I would never run any company with which I am involved in this manner and that I am not advocating any particular course of action above. Its all a worsening sorry tale in my view.
