Tony Xia has written off £49million worth of shares, it can be revealed.

The former majority owner of Aston Villa released the huge amount to help the summer takeover go through smoothly.

Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens were only prepared to invest £30million for a 55 per-cent share of the club.

And for that to happen, Xia had to write off a portion of the shares.

The Chinese businessman has NOT sold his remaining stake, though, and still retains a 45 per-cent control of the club.

The recent filings on Companies House were related to the paperwork from the summer takeover. It was simply a realigning of the shares.

Confusion followed in some quarters after the file arrived hot on the heels of a broken-hearted emoji-filled tweet from Xia which read: “No matter what happened, you cannot disappear from my world.”

But it related back to the summer rather than a recent change.

While the RECON chairman still retains his minority stake, he no longer has a deciding say on the day-to-day running of the club.

Xia no longer visits games and has been cast aside from making key decisions as Sawiris and Edens take the lead role.

It’s also understood that Xia could see his stake in the club reduced further if he fails to match the equity injections of NSWE.