Blues Saga: Two further bids submitted to acquire football club
RECEIVERS acting for the parent of Birmingham City FC say they have received an additional two offers to buy the company.
The new expressions of interest bring to seven the number of non-binding offers submitted for both Birmingham International Holdings and Birmingham City plc.
The receivers, based at Ernst & Young in Hong Kong, said they were exploring “all strategic options” and would update shareholders in due course.
An initial five offers for the club had been submitted to the receivers by the end of March and in a new update to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the receivers said: “Two more indicative non-binding offers have been identified. There are altogether, a total of seven indicative non-binding offers received and being considered.
“The receivers are still in the process of assessing and analysing the indicative non-binding offers, in which there is more than one party interested in acquiring the controlling stake of the company. The definitive terms of the offer are subject to further negotiation between the receivers and the interested parties.”
The receivers said they intended to enter into an exclusivity agreement with a potential investor as soon as practicable.
Speculation the club would be offered for sale grew as soon as the receivers were appointed earlier this year at the request of the then BIH board of directors.
The legitimacy of the receivers’ actions have been questioned by Carson Yeung, currently serving a six-year jail sentence in Hong Kong after being convicted of money laundering charges.
He has already mounted one bid to have the receivers removed as he looks to protect his interests in the Championship club.
Yeung originally bought the St Andrews outfit from David Sullivan and David Gold in 2009 for £81m. Any future sale is likely to realise just a fraction of this.
