Billionaire Makes £81.5m Offer On Birmingham

Hong Kong businessman billionaire Carson Yeung has made a £81.5 million offer for newly promoted Premier League club Birmingham City, according to media reports.

The offer has immediately sending company shares skyrocketing by 40%.

After making a failed bid for the club in 2007, Yeung’s newest offer would see a £1 per share through his investment company Grandtop International Holdings, which is also backed by Shenzhen Capital Group, a state-owned venture capital company.

Grandtop already owns a 29.9 % stake in the club and the all-cash offer to would acquire the entire issued and to be issued share capital of Birmingham City.

The offer forces majority shareholders David Sullivan and David and Ralph Gold to reconsider their statement, which has maintained they would not sell the club unless confident it was going into ‘safe hands’.

When Yeung previously bid for Birmingham, it led to the resignation of then manager Steve Bruce, who had guided the club to promotion to the Premier League twice in six years. The bid attempt, however, failed due to a lack of funds.

This time around, there could again be some issues over whether Mr Yeung, who made part of his fortune through gambling interests in Macau.