Blues Saga: Blues board rally against Yeung’s bid to oust directors

THE parent company of Birmingham City FC has distanced itself from attempts by Carson Yeung to prevent the sale of the club.

Yeung is trying to force an emergency general meeting of Birmingham International Holdings from his Hong Kong prison cell.

The move is an attempt to oust certain directors from the board so he can protect his stake in the business.

The affairs of BIHL are currently being run by administrators from EY following the board’s decision earlier this month to put the business into receivership.

Media reports in Hong Kong said Yeung was trying to get the meeting staged on March 12 so he could remove chairman Cheung Shing, vice chairman Ma Shui Cheong and executive directors Chen Liang and Panos Pavlakis.

He is seeking to protect his position by replacing them with his ‘de facto wife’ Wang Man Li, chief engineer of BIHL Li Wen Jun and the company’s executive administrator Arjun Kumar Gurung.

In a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, BIHL said board said it had noticed reports referring to legal proceedings against the company, its share registrar and the receivers with a supposed hearing date fixed for May 6, 2015.

It said that on February 18 the company and receivers had received an undated ex parte summons and an undated originating summons, both of which were taken out by Yeung’s solicitors.

However, the board said none of the summonses had been filed with the High Court.

A company representative and one from the receivers attended court for a closed hearing before Deputy High Court Judge Wilson Chan.

It said that after hearing arguments from both parties, the Judge ruled against Yeung saying he had no claim against either the company or its receivers.

BIHL said it had never been served with the actual originating summons and upon checking with the Court Registry it discovered that “owing to certain errors made by the solicitors for Mr. Yeung, the originating summons were erroneously filed with the court”.

It added that Yeung’s solicitors had now filed an affidavit admitting to the errors.

“In such circumstances, there will be no hearing date for the legal proceedings whether on May 6, 2015 or any time before or after that date. Furthermore, there is no outstanding claim by Mr Yeung against the company or the receivers under the legal proceedings or otherwise,” it said.

Shares in BIHL have suspended from trading since early December and the board said this would remain the case until further notice.