Kenneth Huang, or Huang Jianhua to go by his Chinese name, has been linked with a consortium who are apparently attempting to buy Liverpool Football Club, but who exactly is he? Huang had the unique honour of becoming China’s first graduate to work in the New York Stock Exchange in the 1980s, and has developed an interest in Western culture during his time in the United States. After graduating in 1984 with a BA degree from Zhongshan University in Guangzhou, his hometown, he moved to study in the US at Columbia University before moving to New York to complete his Masters degree at St Johns. It was when he was at New York University though, while completing some MBA financial management courses, that he began to work at the Stock Exchange.
From here on, Huang became an exceptionally accomplished business executive, building relationships in his native China and using his connections to great effect. He set up many international investments and financing projects between Chinese and American companies, partnering with many of China’s large state-owned enterprises in the deals, and making large profits by benefiting from the economic boom in China. One of his crucial partners in America was with one Les Alexander, and this is where Huang’s connections in sport become very interesting. Alexander is the owner of the NBA’s Houston Rockets and back in 2002, Huang worked with Alexander to bring Chinese Basketball superstar Yao Ming to the NBA to play for Alexander’s team.
Huang’s involvement in US Sport doesn’t end there though. He seems to have enthusiasm for many American sports including basketball and baseball. He uses his company SportsPro Media China to link Chinese sponsors and US Sports giants, including baseball team New York Yankees where he owns a percentage of the franchise with American businessman Marc Ganis. He has also brought much needed multi-year sponsorship deals for basketball teams Houston Rockets and Cleveland Cavaliers in recent years, as well helping to boost the NBA’s profile in China through pre-season tours. Early this year, Huang bought a 15% stake in the Cleveland Cavaliers leading to speculation in the US that Yao Ming would move from the Houston Rockets to join NBA all-star Lebron James at Cleveland. James has subsequently left to join the Miami Heat.
As well as being involved with sport in America, Huang has started to promote basketball in his native China, buying Jilin Northeast Tigers and purchasing a Basketball league in his home country (the National Basketball League) to rival the present Chinese Basketball Association. On top of this, he announced last year a youth Baseball league in the country, showing that his enthusiasm for sport is wide ranging. Huang it seems is determined to make both sports as popular as possible in China.
Huang continues to excel in business too and recently set up a new business venture called Rocket Capital with Les Alexander and San Antonio Spurs former owner Billy Joe “Red” McCombs. Together (with Alexander & McCombs billions and Huang’s connections with China’s state industries) they have begun to collect an assortment of companies, investing in one of China’s largest automakers Brilliance Auto, as well as in the China Railway Group, China Sinoma International Engineering, Uni President Enterprises Corp, Xinjiang XinXin Mining Industry, and Anta Sports Products, the last of which now sponsor’s Alexander’s Houston Rockets. Rocket Capital also has invested large amounts into Hong Kong’s private equity market, to the amount of $200 million in 2007 alone.
The two things you need to know about Huang then, are that although he is wealthy, it is his backers that really hold the billions. The second fact is that not only will he bring wealthy backers, his connections with China’s state owned companies mean exceptionally lucrative sponsorship deals from the Far East. If Huang’s consortium does takeover, expect many pre-season tours of China, but also keep in mind that Liverpool maybe the first football club to crack the highly lucrative market in China. Huang already has a track record of doing this, tying Anta to Houston Rockets and more recently Tsing Tsao to the Cleveland Cavaliers. His passion for sport is undoubted with his deal-brokering in both Basketball and Baseball, and he now looks like turning his attention to football and Liverpool FC.
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they are very very close to buying liverpool for £565m the deal is days away and apparently whoever is the manager in the summer will have £120m to spend over 2 seasons.
Oh no! Here we go again… Another from the U.S who is immersed in U.S style sports and shows absolutely no interest/knowledge of Football. Er? Haven’t we been here before chaps???
It is hardly credit-worthy to comment further on this……
China is an untapped market. Could bring in alot of sponsorship. Still in a dilemma. Do we want a business orientated consortium that could bring in much needed revenue from Chinese companies or a sugar daddy from the Emirates who spend for prestige alone? Whatever happens the stadium has to be written into the contract and obviously no debts piled onto the Club as part of agreement.
some conditions – 1 they should pay for the club outright with no borrowings. 2 they should supply at least £50 million immediatley to buy 3 top quality players (LB, LW and striker). 3 they must start building a new stadium within six months of completion of purchase of the club. the stadium should also have no more than 25-30% borrowing on it. if these conditions are met welcome aboard.
No offense andearly days yet but thisalready sounds tomuch alike an earlier acquisition of the club. Another business men involved in US sport looking to invest and make a business move at the cost of LFC perhaps? Like i said early days but the similarities to the recent past already worry me! Unfortunately id rather favour Middle eastern OLD money as opposed to this Asian NEW money
this guy seems to have serious backers, lets see what happens. he has indicated there is an aggressive competitor from the middle east interested also. as i posted before, the condition of sale are important to adopt no matter who buys the club.
If the chinese consortium able to buy LFc then onething is for sure , All the FAKE merchandise of LFC will be flooded all over the world by the Chinese pirate companies. I am not so sure whether LFC get more revenue or lose revenue of selling LFC merchandise because of “Pirate” LFC merchandise by the chinese.
LFC need to steer clear of any more Yanky involvement !!! them and their franchises ! it’s all about greed!
This guy makes me nervous. It sounds too much like our current ownership. I much prefer the idea of a Middle East investment from one person, as opposed to a consortium. It can be very easy to over exaggerate how much money has really been invested, but when it’s one person involved, their holdings, at least the official ones, are for all to see.
To clarify guys, Huang does have a lot of connections with American businessman, but his main area of expertise is to get Chinese investment for their sports franchises. At the moment, we don’t know where the money is coming from for the Liverpool buyout, but my bet it is somebody from China.
I to would like an owner from Middle East, they are interested in prestige at least as much as in the profit.
Simply, they would like for club to be first in the table more than for it to be ahed of Real and Man.utd. in yearly earnings.
But with a price tag those 2 have slaped on the club, we must be happy that there is real interest for buying.
And who knows; China is a big market, the biggest, and Chinese do tend to be fanatic for the things they love as much as anyone. Maybe they fall in love with football and Liverpool!
If he know interested in LFC, Please don’t repeat the same thing again.
Football is huge in China, and there is plenty of money floating around, so this shouldn’t surprise us.
Wouldn’t be worried about merchandising, they’ll enjoy the money from unpirated goods, unless one of his backers makes pirated goods :). Anyway, right now it is fake Man U and Chelsea kits that are the big sellers in China, so if fake Liverpool shirts start outselling them we should be celebrating not complaining!
If this does happen, Rafa better study Chinese culture – some of his ‘attacks’ on our current owners won’t go down so well in a culture that values ‘face’ so much!
Oh, and his name should be written Huang Jianhua.
How the board will be re-shape ? how many peoples running these consortium ? How they will invest their money in our club ? How much fund they will put a side for the upcoming summer ?
Better to put your money where your mouth is a.k.a put the debt level into ZERO, Build the new stadium and buy the “snoogy doggy” to challenge the premiership
Consortiums, Wall Street, Private Equity…will they all get lost and stop messing our club up. Sick to death of these people wanting to make a quick buck(excuse the pun) out of LFC. These past few years have been too painful. Get someone in who cares about the club and lets get on and play some attractive football.
Here’s a question for Mr Liverpool Huang. Do we beat Chelsea in the next game or should we lose to them???
Huang’s deal is a non runner , there’s a deal on the table from the middle east to buy 100% of the club that is the only serous deal on the table at present , when Huang got involved the middle east showed their financial muscle and Huang back off …
my big worry is that the american owners do not care in the slightest about who they sell to its all about the money thats why the came and thats why there going and now this guy huang another guy who is only a middle man for the guys with money which means there are going more upheaval over what way things are run at lfc do we really as supporters have to go through another 6 years of this. we need one buyer with the cash to clear the debts build a stadium and put 200 million over two years to build a proper team and 5 million a year for mourinho to run it please god send us our dream come true.
Keep writing, I simply can’t get enough. You’re doing a standup job, and I thank you for it.
HI KENNY, Hope you more success!
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