Hong Kong tycoon edges closer to Birmingham takeover
(Reuters)Updated: 2007-07-17 10:38 LONDON, July 16 - Birmingham City took a step closer to joining the growing number of foreign-owned Premier League clubs when Hong Kong businessman Carson Yeung became the club's single largest shareholder on Monday.
Yeung, 47, has acquired a 30 per cent stake in the midlands club for 15
million pounds ($30.58 million).
Birmingham added that discussions with Grandtop - the Hong Kong investment firm of which Yeung owns 16.67 per cent - about a possible full takeover were ongoing.
Yeung has said he hopes to complete an estimated 50.0 million pounds takeover by buying the remaining shares from David Sullivan and the Gold brothers.
"I would like to own the whole club," he told the Daily Mirror newspaper on Monday.
Yeung was expected to speak to manager Steve Bruce for the first time on Monday but whether his takeover will prompt a wave of big signings at the newly promoted club remains to be seen.
"We can buy some good players in January but maybe by then we might already be in a healthy position so we will wait and see," he added.
There are already nine foreign-owned clubs in the Premier League with Roman Abramovich, the Russian billionaire who bought Chelsea in 2003, the most prominent.
Champions Manchester United have been in the hands of the American Glazer family since 2005 and, with a lucrative new television deal coming into force from the new season, there has been a succession of foreign takeovers in the past 12 months.
Americans have taken charge at Liverpool and Aston Villa while an Icelandic consortium bought West Ham United. Former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has just taken control of Manchester City.
Fulham, Portsmouth and Sunderland are also foreign-owned.
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