Dr Tony Xia is making a name for himself in the West, having purchased Aston Villa football club and Hollywood production company Millennium Films. But where did the Tony Xia net worth come from?
Dr Tony Xia is one of many Chinese businessmen currently buying into the East Asia nation’s growing interest in football. He agreed to hand over £76 million to buy a 100% stake in English club Aston Villa in 2016. He has since paid £60 million in costs and another £30 million to strengthen the club’s playing squad.
Xia hopes to turn Aston Villa into the most popular club in China. It will take a huge investment for him to achieve his goals. However, given Xia’s wealth, it isn’t impossible.
Who is Aston Villa owner Tony Xia?
Tony Xia got an early start in life. His parents enrolled him in school two years early for legal reasons. At 14, he moved 1,500km across China to study at the University of Beijing. At 19, Xia moved abroad to study at Harvard.
He left with a degree in landscape design in 1999 and founded XWHO, a design company that helped to plan the 2008 Beijing Olympic Forest Park.
However, his first major project came through his planning company, Teamax. They were asked to produce planning maps for over 500 cities. That deal kick-started Xia’s business empire.
Operating under the umbrella company ‘RECON Group’, Xia’s portfolio now includes businesses in the IT, health, energy, design, finance and leisure sectors.
Many of Xia’s companies are privately owned, which means that there is no official value assigned to them. However, some of them are thought to be worth hundreds of millions of pounds.
In fact, Teamax recently sold for £430 million. That sale allowed Xia to buy Aston Villa, but he has no plans to stop there. The Chinese mogul now hopes to set up feeder clubs in Spain, France, the United States, India, Australia and China in order to produce and develop new players.
As well as moving into the sports world, Xia also purchased hit film studio Millennium Films, known for making The Expendables and Rambo. The deal set him back $200 million. Although, Xia still has plenty more to invest.
So what is the Tony Xia net worth?
Xia has been secretive about his wealth his since joining the Western business world. As a result, estimations of the Tony Xia net worth have varied.
Initial reports claimed that the RECON Group is worth more than $100 billion. Yet, Tony Xia’s net worth actually stands at £990 million.
Read more:
Famous entrepreneurs all share these specific traits. Do you?
A top Japanese CEO told us about this crazy new business trend