Aston Villa takeover: Eight facts about new owner Dr. Tony Xia
Aston Villa have agreed to sell the club to Chinese businessman Dr Tony Xia for around £60m. Here are 8 facts about the new owner.
1. Dr. Tony Jiantong Xia is the Chairman/CEO and owner of Recon Group
2. After graduation in China, Xia was amongst the initial 25 highly rated graduates out of 1,000 sent to study overseas.
3. He spent six years at Harvard and MIT including five months exchange with Oxford University before returning to China to develop Recon Group.
4. Dr Xia played football as a striker until he finished at college and football has remained his passion.
5. Dr Xia decided to buy an iconic football Club in England as the cornerstone of his Sports, Leisure and Tourism Division.
6. He became a fan of Aston Villa many years ago and is delighted at the opportunity to become the new owner.
7. Recon Group is a privately owned holding company that owns the controlling interest in five publicly listed companies on the Hong Kong and Chinese stock exchanges
8. Recon Group is a multinational conglomerate operating in six core business sectors.
