Who owns West Brom?
Bilkul Football WBA became the owners of West Brom in February 2024 when they acquired the Black Country club from controversial former owners Yunyi Guokai (Shanghai) Sports Development Limited.
Bilkul is ultimately owned by Shilen Patel – who has served as the Albion’s chairman since taking over at The Hawthorns – and his father Dr Kiran C. Patel.
West Bromwich Albion Group, who are the parent company of the Baggies, are 87.8 per cent owned by Bilkul, with the remaining 12.2 per cent owned by minority shareholders.
Who is Shilen Patel?
Patel was born in Tampa, Florida and still lives in the Sunshine State.
He’s the founder and CEO of HealthAxis Group but sold his first company, Visionary HealthWare, in 2011. The Indian American businessman also helps run his family’s portfolio of businesses and is the co-founder and chairman of the TiE Tampa Bay Angel Fund. He’s also a trustee of the University of South Florida.
Patel has been West Brom’s chairman since Bilkul bought the Chinese out of The Hawthorns in 2024 and also owns a minority share of Serie A club Bologna, which he’s held since 2014.
How much were West Brom bought for?
Guochuan Lai’s disastrous spell saw him and everyone else involved in the mysterious Yunyi Guokai (Shanghai) Sports Development Limited almost run West Brom into the ground.
After buying the club from Jeremy Peace in 2016 for around £175million, Lai oversaw relegation to the Championship in 2018 to end eight consecutive seasons in the Premier League.
Due to a failure to re-establish themselves in the Premier League after promotion under Slaven Bilic in 2019/20 and an absurd management of finances, Albion found themselves in massive trouble.
Lai took £10million in loans from West Brom and also signed up for huge debts totalling around £30million due to two loan high-interest deals with MSD Holdings.
When Bilkul bought West Brom in February 2024, they paid £60million. However, only £28million of that was for the Football League founders with the remaining £32million paying off the debt that had been incurred during the Chinese ownership.
What is Shilen Patel’s net worth?
It’s fair to say that Patel has won over the West Brom fans since buying Lai and co out of the Black Country in 2024.
Albion’s financial situation has improved to the point that they are now able to spend millions on players in the transfer market with Mikey Johnston arriving from Celtic for £3million in August 2024 and Isaac Price signing from Standard Liege for £2.5million in January 2025.
West Brom chairman Patel’s personal net worth is reportedly around $100million (£79.5million).
He manages family assets worth around $2billion (£1.5 billion).