º£½ÇÊÓÆµ

Oops.

Our website is temporarily unavailable in your location.

We are working hard to get it back online.

PRIVACY
Economic Development

Rich List 2017: No.3 - Guochuan Lai

The new owner of West Bromwich Albion is the second Chinese businessman to make the list and pledges solid support to the football club

Guochuan Lai - picture courtesy of West Bromwich Albion(Image: Guochuan Lai - picture courtesy of West Bromwich Albion)

Football/Echo-towns
2017: No.3 - £2.8bn
2016: - New Entry

The new owner of , Guochuan Lai has an advantage over his fellow countrymen who have bought other West Midlands football clubs. He inherits a well-run, stable club - one of the most financially solid in the Premiership.

The club finished last season in a healthy position despite losing season ticket holders and replacing manager Alan Irvine with . Turnover was up nearly £10 million to £96.2 million while pre-tax profits hit £7.6 million. Gate receipts, TV inco0me and commercial revenues all showed increases.

So Guochan Lai's acquisition of the club from former chairman Jeremy Peace for a rumoured £200 million seems a sound investment. He has stated that he intends to maintain the club's stable structure and respect its heritage, establishing the club in the top-half of the Premiership.

The club was acquired by Chinese investment company Yunyi Guokai (Shanghai) Sports Development Ltd, which is controlled by Guochuan Lai. Former chairman of Blackburn Rovers, John Williams took over the chairman's role fro Jeremy Peace. Pi Yue Li has joined the board as a director and representative of the new owner.

Guochuan Lai was born in Guangdong Province and is former general manager of Chinese landscaping giant Palm. He remains a director of a number of Palm's subsidiaries including Belt Collins International, Palm Landscape (Hong Kong), and Palm Design Holdings.

For more than 20 years Guochuan helped develop Palm from a regional landscape engineering company to one of the biggest in China. It is dedicated to the development of eco-towns in China and is listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange with a market capitalisation of £1.8 billion.

In addition he has a number of growing private investments in technology, virtual reality, tourism and sport. It is difficult to be precise about the net worth of individuals in China, but our estimate of £2.8 billion may be conservative.