By Paul Nicholson
April 25 – A leading executive of one of Hull City’s suitors for club ownership has been arrested in Hong Kong raising questions over the progress of the sale that has been on-going since the start of the season.
David Yip, executive director at GreaterChina Professional Services, was taken into custody by the Independent Commission Against Corruption, but the company maintained that this will not affect the $331 million company’s business, despite a fall in its stock value of over 6%.
Their offer for Hull is £130 million and is the highest of what are believed to be four offers on the table. GreaterChina last year said that they were expecting to close the deal in the first half of this year and that they had raised half the finance and were looking to raise the rest from other investors.
The lowest of the bids for Hull is reckoned to be £106 million but all the offers look to be contingent on Hull staying in the Premier League. Buyers will be reluctant to gamble at over £100 million without Premier League certainty.
Everton look to Chinese finance
Everton’s new stadium in the Bramley Moore dock area of Liverpool could be financed by money from China. The deal would likely see the money loaned to build but secured against the stadium ownership.
This in turn would allow owner Farhad Moshiri to focus his own funds on player acquisitions rather than have them tied up in construction projects as the club attempts to break into the top six of English football’s Premier League.
While Chinese authorities have gone increasingly cold on approving money transfers out of the country for the acquisition of what they believe are over-priced European football clubs, there are is less reticence over investing or loaning money for infrastructure.
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