Wednesday 12 November 2014

Chinese said to be circling Premier League - again..

It's unusually quiet in the UK corporate dealmaking scene so I thought I would take a look at a story in another sector I have a profound interest in: Premier League football.

I picked up a snippet doing the rounds last week that Dalian Wanda, the Chinese real estate company controlled by billionaire Wang Jianlin, may have rekindled its interest in buying a Premier League football club.

For readers that are not aware, Dalian Wanda/Wang Jianlin was/were rumoured to be interested in buying premier league club Southampton earlier this year before turning its attention to Atletico Madrid, who won the Spanish league.

Here are links to past reports: http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/838556.shtml

and:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/hengshao/2014/10/06/chinese-mogul-wang-jianlin-said-to-be-lifeline-investor-for-soccers-struggling-atletico-madrid/

Anyway, good sources tell me Dalian Wanda - which in 2013 bought British yachtmaker Sunseeker for £320m - has once again been casting its eye over the Premier League for a potential deal.

However, I understand from these good sources the Chinese company has so far shown no interest in purchasing Aston Villa, which has been put up for sale by American tycoon Randy Lerner.

Still, there are a few other Premier League clubs that the Chinese might take an interest in...

Dalian Wanda declined to comment.

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