Randy Lerner investment in Aston Villa reaches £138.6m

Aston Villa's US-based owner, Randy Lerner, has put almost £140m into the club since his 2006 takeover, according to official documents. The club's statement of capital, filed at Companies House this month, shows that £138.6m has been invested from Lerner's UK holding company, Reform Acquisitions. The financial accounts for the year to 31 May 2009 are not due to be filed until the end of next month, so it cannot yet be seen how exactly the money was paid to the club. However, the most recent published figures, for the previous year, to 31 May 2008, reveal that the investment up to then, £49.5m, was in the form of loan notes, from Lerner's holding company in the United States. During that year the manager Martin O'Neill's signings and a more than doubling of players' wages led to Villa recording a £7.3m loss. The interest paid on the loan notes owed to Lerner's US company was at a fairly standard 2% above interbank rates, amounting to £4m, which came out of Villa's own income, including fans' ticket money. Lerner's quiet revolution at Villa Park, where his £62.6m takeover was financed with his own and his family trust's money and the £138.6m has since strengthened the team, makes a stark contrast to the regime at Manchester United. There the Glazer family loaded their own borrowings to take the club over on to United itself, and the club were recently revealed to have debts of £716m, not one penny of it paid in as investment for the club. Lerner's funding of Villa, principally to provide O'Neill with money to spend on transfers and wages, has beenmade in nine separate injections since July 2007, according to Companies House documents. The amounts paid to the club range from £8m, in November 2007, to £30m, in August 2008. The money is routed from Reform Acquisitions, which, in the most recent accounts, was shown to have borrowed the investment up to that date from Lerner's US company, also called Reform Acquisitions.this month when he was replaced after the Browns' poor season. The investment and stewardship from Lerner have brought a transformation in Villa's fortunes and qualification for the Carling Cup final, their first Wembley final in a decade. However from 2012-13, the new "financial fair play initiative" from Uefa will require all clubs involved in European competition not to be making consistent losses, regardless of whether they are supported financially by an owner.