News GFG on board as joint major sponsor

[RussellEbertHandball]

New Sponsorship is north of $1 mill per annum.

Gupta moved the family and defacto HQ to Sydney in late 2017 and told them they will be spending 2 years in Sydney and spends a lot of time travelling between Sydney and their London HQ.

If he is going to get involved with Port, he isn't going to * around.

He has 1) a steel and aluminium manufacturing, recycling, commodities and engineering division, 2) an energy, natural resources, mining, shipping and commodities trading division, 3) a banking and finance division and 4) a real estate division.

I reckon we will get the GFG Alliance logo on the jumper rather than Liberty / Liberty House logo. They went thru a complete re-branding exercise last year that they launched it in September.





Worth a read is this long December 2018 Fin Review article
https://www.afr.com/brand/boss/how-...-alliance-chief-sanjeev-gupta-20181029-h177xb

Sanjeev Gupta was furious. Sitting in his office in London on June 15 last year, he had just been told in a phone call from administrators KordaMentha that a rival Korean consortium had been anointed the preferred bidder for the collapsed Arrium steel and mini-mills business in Australia and he was excluded from the process.The British billionaire and his advisers had spent months crafting their offer, navigating through the sensitive financing and political issues associated with trying to save the Whyalla steelworks – and, by extension, a town of 23,000 people in northern South Australia relying on it for economic survival. It was to be his first foray into Australian business and he was being shut out. "I was more than annoyed," Gupta tells AFR . "The earth had fallen from my feet, so to speak." The Indian-born businessman had been on a winning streak in Britain as an unlikely saviour of industries that many had given up on. He'd spent $1 billion in the previous two years on ageing industrial businesses discarded by Caparo, Rio Tinto and India’s Tata Steel.

Gupta's Liberty House company and his father's SIMEC shipping, energy and commodities trading operations were feeling confident about the Arrium bid. Gupta had been personally sought out to potentially replicate in Australia what he was doing in Britain. But then the devastating phone call came."We were totally back-footed," recalls Gupta, speaking to in November amid speculation his sprawling industrial empire – which includes a bank – might have overextended itself after a huge acquisition spree since 2013...........
https://www.afr.com/brand/boss/how-...-alliance-chief-sanjeev-gupta-20181029-h177xb

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

We need the right balance of both to keep our people on their toes.

Yep you need more than a benefactor. The long term major sponsors of AFL clubs, ie more than 5 years, have a good combo of both.

 

[Enviable Tradition]

Imagine the network of businesses that can be opened up if we properly use the combined connections of Mr Gui and Mr Gupta!

 

[Lockhart Road]

Yep you need more than a benefactor. The long term major sponsors of AFL clubs, ie more than 5 years, have a good combo of both.

This is part of what we are doing wrong in China.
There now seems to be too much attention paid to the community and sports diplomacy sector ... as this is where Andrew Hunter is accomplished.
But not paying equal attention to, and not manning up for, the broader commercial and business sector is like being in China with one arm tied behind our back.

 

[Lockhart Road]

Imagine the network of businesses that can be opened up if we properly use the combined connections of Mr Gui and Mr Gupta!

Indeed. China, instead of being the core of our new partnership expansion, would become a bonus. Or, depending on scale, Whyalla, if we score there, would become a bonus to China.

 

[JUSTWORK]

Imagine the network of businesses that can be opened up if we properly use the combined connections of Mr Gui and Mr Gupta!

Hopefully exactly that happens, if both of those two do well out of this makes future sponsorship of us more desirable to other companies.

 

[Pappagallo]

I work in the industry and know Liberty quite well.
What I say next cannot be taken as fact, but is based on strong rumours, industry chit-chat, and perceived opinions.

Mr. Gupta is well-known to be very charismatic and presents himself and his business interests very well.
It is this, along with his excellent business acumen that is the reason why he has been very successful in life.
But it is also this which makes him dangerous.

I have heard many stories, whether true or not, some close to my business, others not so close, which would make most if not all of us be extremely hesitant on celebrating this news of a potential second sponsor.
If rumours are to be believed, there are huge questions on where much of the money comes from, and the legitimacy of it. I don't want to speak too much of it on a public forum lest I leave myself open to troubles in the future.

This person is not our messiah, and it may be a huge step in the wrong direction.

Port Adelaide: Never Boring*






*2018 on-field strategy and execution excluded from this statement

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

I work in the industry and know Liberty quite well.
What I say next cannot be taken as fact, but is based on strong rumours, industry chit-chat, and perceived opinions.

Mr. Gupta is well-known to be very charismatic and presents himself and his business interests very well.
It is this, along with his excellent business acumen that is the reason why he has been very successful in life.
But it is also this which makes him dangerous.

I have heard many stories, whether true or not, some close to my business, others not so close, which would make most if not all of us be extremely hesitant on celebrating this news of a potential second sponsor.
If rumours are to be believed, there are huge questions on where much of the money comes from, and the legitimacy of it. I don't want to speak too much of it on a public forum lest I leave myself open to troubles in the future.

This person is not our messiah, and it may be a huge step in the wrong direction.

I have no knowledge of where any of his money comes from, but he has been pushing boundaries for a very long time as can be seen from this December 2018 Fin Review article I mentioned above, which shows he is a cagey bastard and prepared to bend the rules from day 1 that he set up his first company whilst still at Uni.

https://www.afr.com/brand/boss/how-...-alliance-chief-sanjeev-gupta-20181029-h177xb
It was the same resolve he had drawn on 25 years earlier when his fledgling Liberty House company came off second best against Cambridge University. Gupta was an economics student in 1992 and living on campus in a residential college. The situation offered a tax loophole: because it was an academic institution, transactions conducted on the college telex machine were exempted from the British equivalent of GST.

So Gupta frequently used the telex to trade a range of commodities, including his first substantial deal – the sale of 2000 tonnes of steel to a customer in Nigeria.

The university authorities were unimpressed and eventually asked him to leave the dormitory because his commercial activities breached regulations. But the hunger for deal-making became entrenched in the Gupta psyche. "I love what I do," he says. "Every part of it."
https://www.afr.com/brand/boss/how-...-alliance-chief-sanjeev-gupta-20181029-h177xb

 

[Ford Fairlane]

Soprano waste disposal, nightclub management and processed meats Inc.

 

[greg62]

So Gupta frequently used the telex to trade a range of commodities, including his first substantial deal – the sale of 2000 tonnes of steel to a customer in Nigeria.

Apparently he is still waiting for the funds to arrive from the Prince of Nigeria. Very strange indeed as he sent all his bank details weeks ago.

 

[Eighteenseventy]

I work in the industry and know Liberty quite well.
What I say next cannot be taken as fact, but is based on strong rumours, industry chit-chat, and perceived opinions.

Mr. Gupta is well-known to be very charismatic and presents himself and his business interests very well.
It is this, along with his excellent business acumen that is the reason why he has been very successful in life.
But it is also this which makes him dangerous.

I have heard many stories, whether true or not, some close to my business, others not so close, which would make most if not all of us be extremely hesitant on celebrating this news of a potential second sponsor.
If rumours are to be believed, there are huge questions on where much of the money comes from, and the legitimacy of it. I don't want to speak too much of it on a public forum lest I leave myself open to troubles in the future.

This person is not our messiah, and it may be a huge step in the wrong direction.

Rubbish, crap put out by competitors. Fact

 

[Eighteenseventy]

Rubbish, crap put out by competitors. Fact

 

[SgtSchulz]

I’d like him on the club board.

 

[StrappingTape]

He will sponsor us becwause he needs a s**t ton of gov funding to make the whyalla thing economically viable. The cost of power in this state and it's reliability will fail any substantive feasibility report. He's rolled into town and promised big knowing that the SA government is operating just like the last one and wants a big win and will pay handsomely to get something to open there partly as they don't want to own the power issue if it doesn't happen (they have no intention of fixing our system). Throwing money at us etc is a play to get a deal where the government subsidies are so huge that it's guaranteed money maker aka solar farms/wind farms etc.

In saying that, hell yes take his money for as long as possible. If he goes ahead with his plan it'll just be like laundering our taxes back via his company.

 

[badbeats]

Problem is we need the money, so we'll probably take on the sponsorship regardless of the background of the company.

 

[Papa G]

Think we are jumping the gun here.

Gupta ain't selling arms to the Taliban or developing the 21st century's version Thalidomide.

He's a successful businessman who's turned around some businesses that nobody else has wanted to touch. He's a risk taker no doubt, but is also a visionary. His vision for Whyalla is grandiose, maybe even foolhardy..... he may even have given them false hope, but hope all the same where there was none.

It is better to aim high and fail than to succeed aiming low. Would a sponsorship from the world's most boring car by a band of local Good ol Boys be what satisfys you lot?

 

[Flash of power]

The best sponsor is the one that is doing it for goodwill rather than commercial incentives.

A commercial incentive sponsor drops their sponsorship as soon as the financial ROI doesn’t stack up.

A goodwill sponsor isn’t interested in ROI, but in establishing a presence in the community so that they have a number of brand ambassadors that champion their cause.

Gupta’s sponsorship would be a goodwill one.

Sorry to burst your bubble but there is NO such thing as a goodwill sponsor - they all want some return on their investment otherwise they would just make a donation.

Gupta is too savvy a businessman to throw money away, there will be some value in it for him and me thinks its the chinese connection - or a nice link to the ports he wants to build

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Some stuff on where Gupta gets his financing from - some innovative methods and an Aussie is involved.

Fin Review Dec 2018
https://www.afr.com/brand/boss/how-...-alliance-chief-sanjeev-gupta-20181029-h177xb

.... Persistence and determination won out. Gupta was ready to begin a Down Under version of his "green steel" strategy, in which plants employ old-style manufacturing of high value-added products but use scrap and recycled steel, and are eventually powered by renewable energy. The Arrium assets were acquired for about $700 million. A relatively new financing firm called Greensill Capital, founded seven years ago by Lex Greensill, who grew up on a farm in Bundaberg, Queensland, was a key backer.

Among its innovative supply chain financing structures – which have also raised eyebrows – Greensill securitises the future income to be produced by industrial assets, enabling businesses to access that cash much quicker than usual. Greensill had earlier worked with Gupta on deals in Britain and has been a consistent presence in about 30 GFG Alliance deals across the globe. Lex Greensill, a former Morgan Stanley investment banker, is well connected and was an adviser to former British prime minister David Cameron......

https://www.afr.com/brand/boss/how-...-alliance-chief-sanjeev-gupta-20181029-h177xb


Excerpt from a long article in the Financial Times in November 2018

https://www.ft.com/content/ce33912c-e1f1-11e8-a6e5-792428919cee

... A light was shone on one of those sources of capital when a Swiss asset management company was plunged into scandal this summer.

Zurich-based GAM is returning billions of dollars to clients after suspending a star fund manager, who had invested in bonds linked to GFG companies, over potential breaches of due diligence practices and company rules. There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by GFG or Mr Gupta. With a major investor seemingly unlikely to buy more GFG debt, it raises the question of whether Mr Gupta risks running out of financial firepower to fulfil his grand ambitions — or indeed if his business model is built to last. “He’s mercurial in some ways, and in other ways maverick,” said one person who has had dealings with Mr Gupta. “He thinks laterally, and sometimes that’s exploring the art of the possible.”
......
The Gupta family also has its own bank in the shape of Wyelands, based at Liberty’s Mayfair head office. It specialises in “receivables finance”, where a company sells invoices at a discount for upfront cash; and “supply chain finance”, when a company’s suppliers pay a small fee to a bank or other intermediary for early payment. Although the bank is independent, Wyelands’ annual report said Mr Gupta’s other interests within GFG have been an “important source of business introductions”. The purchase of a second lending institution — the UK branch of Nigeria’s Diamond Bank — is still awaiting regulatory approval. GFG hopes it will support British trade with emerging economies.
....
As GFG has grown, a vital source of finance has proven to be Greensill Capital, a seven-year-old London-based specialist in working capital finance, which arranges bonds for companies and sells them on to institutional investors. It is led by Lex Greensill, a former Morgan Stanley and Citi banker who was an adviser to former UK prime minister David Cameron. Greensill has issued $2.8bn worth of notes on behalf of Mr Gupta’s family companies, according to public documents, though GFG said that figure is “not current” as it regularly issues and repays bonds.

Greensill’s financial alchemy has created cash today for GFG out of revenues that will not land for years to come. One innovative deal helped fund Mr Gupta’s purchase of the UK’s last aluminium smelter in Lochaber, Scotland, together with two nearby hydropower plants from Rio Tinto in 2016. As part of the transaction, the Scottish government agreed to stand behind the smelter’s electricity purchases for 25 years. The Simec subsidiary owning the hydro-stations then sold this state-backed power purchase agreement on to Greensill in return for upfront cash. Based on this stream of payments, Greensill issued £295m of bonds that were awarded a sovereign-grade credit rating by Moody’s, bringing down the cost of borrowing. Both Liberty House and Greensill declined to comment on the specifics of their dealings.

The perception that GFG might now be struggling for funds was fuelled in recent weeks after Mr Gupta turned to rival traders to ask for some $160m in loans linked to his acquisition of the Dunkirk smelter. Industry participants described the move as unusual, since banks normally provide that kind of credit. What raised suspicions was the timing of the approach. It came just as GAM was unwinding investment funds with $7.3bn of assets, which held hundreds of millions of dollars worth of debt securities, many of them illiquid or hard to sell, linked to GFG companies. This sparked speculation that Liberty was seeking other sources of capital after an important door had closed shut. Asked for more details about its financings through Greensill’s securitisation vehicles, Liberty House said there were “big numbers” of other holders of the long-term notes issued by Greensill, but it declined to comment on specific figures or the scale of the borrowing........

https://www.ft.com/content/ce33912c-e1f1-11e8-a6e5-792428919cee


Financial Times October 2018 looking at the $160m loan from rivals article
https://www.ft.com/content/e526d9fe-d222-11e8-a9f2-7574db66bcd5

Sanjeev Gupta, the so-called “saviour of steel”, has approached rival commodity traders for loans after one of his main financial backers, Swiss asset manager GAM, ran into trouble. Over the past three years Mr Gupta has emerged from relative obscurity to build an industrial empire spanning four continents, with $17bn in turnover and a workforce of more than 20,000. A string of rapid acquisitions, ranging from aluminium smelters in the Highlands of Scotland to steel mills in Australia, have led to him hailed as a rescuer of the industry in those countries. One main source of financing, according to public documents, has been GAM, which owned a significant amount of at least $2.8bn of bonds issued on behalf of Mr Gupta’s family companies. GAM has been retrenching after it identified breaches of company policy by one of its star fund managers. For his latest deal, Mr Gupta has turned to his own rivals for financing........
.......
Greensill, the London-based company that created those bonds has arranged at least $2.8bn in financing for Mr Gupta’s companies, according to publicly available data. On many of his transactions, Mr Gupta has worked closely with Greensill, a start-up founded in 2011 by Lex Greensill, an Australian who claims to have been an adviser to both David Cameron and Barack Obama.

Mr Gupta’s rapid dealmaking exploits — which this month included the acquisition of four European steel plants from ArcelorMittal employing more than 12,500 people — have surprised some industry figures and raised questions about how his business empire is financed. On many of these deals, Mr Gupta has used a range of both common and more innovative techniques. Liberty has previously said it “monetises” future cash flows from mature businesses it acquires, in addition to using its own equity funding and borrowings secured against assets.

Another method is factoring, whereby a company sells unpaid customer invoices at a discount to receive cash upfront. In November 2016 Mr Gupta bought the UK’s last aluminium smelter in Scotland together with two nearby hydropower plants from Rio Tinto for $300m. As part of the deal the Scottish government agreed to guarantee the smelter’s future power purchases. Mr Gupta then sold this government-backed power agreement to Greensill in return for upfront cash. Greensill issued £295m worth of bonds based on these future payments, which were given the same credit rating as the UK government by Moody’s. While it is unclear whether GAM bought these exact bonds, its funds invested heavily in unlisted bonds backed by Liberty House. Many of these positions were still stuck on GAM’s books at the end of September........

https://www.ft.com/content/e526d9fe-d222-11e8-a9f2-7574db66bcd5

 

[chiwigi]

Think we are jumping the gun here.

Gupta ain't selling arms to the Taliban or developing the 21st century's version Thalidomide.

He's a successful businessman who's turned around some businesses that nobody else has wanted to touch. He's a risk taker no doubt, but is also a visionary. His vision for Whyalla is grandiose, maybe even foolhardy..... he may even have given them false hope, but hope all the same where there was none.

It is better to aim high and fail than to succeed aiming low. Would a sponsorship from the world's most boring car by a band of local Good ol Boys be what satisfys you lot?

He’s not a white guy from the Adelaide Club so he must have cheated.

 

[RossFC]

So is it correct in saying that this 1mil sponsorship + 500k from the China game will give us some profit this year? (Considering we lost 1mil in 2018.)

 

[afl2004]

So is it correct in saying that this 1mil sponsorship + 500k from the China game will give us some profit this year? (Considering we lost 1mil in 2018.)

Oak gave us extra money as well so take a few 100k away

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

So is it correct in saying that this 1mil sponsorship + 500k from the China game will give us some profit this year? (Considering we lost 1mil in 2018.)

China isn't a certainty, despite what Koch says. I wouldn't predict anything at this stage.

 

[Spadge]

Soprano waste disposal, nightclub management and processed meats Inc.

Bada Bing!

 

[Jason K]

He will sponsor us becwause he needs a s**t ton of gov funding to make the whyalla thing economically viable. The cost of power in this state and it's reliability will fail any substantive feasibility report. He's rolled into town and promised big knowing that the SA government is operating just like the last one and wants a big win and will pay handsomely to get something to open there partly as they don't want to own the power issue if it doesn't happen (they have no intention of fixing our system). Throwing money at us etc is a play to get a deal where the government subsidies are so huge that it's guaranteed money maker aka solar farms/wind farms etc.

In saying that, hell yes take his money for as long as possible. If he goes ahead with his plan it'll just be like laundering our taxes back via his company.

With a plant that size I would have thought he'd generate his own power

 

[Steve Dore]

... The situation offered a tax loophole: because it was an academic institution, transactions conducted on the college telex machine were exempted from the British equivalent of GST. ....

It's a while since I used a telex and while they were used to send and receive confirmation of international funds transfers (TT) prior to the implementation of SWIFT, to my knowledge VAT is on the actual financial transaction and not the telex/electronic message used to make the transfer.

Edit: If the telex's ID/address was linked to a bank account it would be one owned by the college so the funds for these deals Gupta was making would be going to the college.