The consortium headed by Peter Day remains keen on buying Birmingham City.And even though the group’s other figurehead, Jeremy Wray, has left the company behind the proposed buyout, he is still very much part of their plans.Soccer Management Worldwide (SMW) conducted the main part of due diligence by the middle of June.They were prepared to strike a deal, worth around an eventual £30 million, but negotiations stalled as Blues’ parent company, Birmingham International Holdings Limited (BIHL), ran into trouble with Hong Kong Stock Exchange regulators.There has been no breakthrough since and eyebrows were raised this week when it was revealed former Swindon Town chairman Wray had resigned as a director of SMW.But according to sources close to the firm, the move doesn’t alter their intentions.Wray stepped down for personal reasons and is ‘still very much part’ of what they would like to do at Blues.Backers of the SMW bid are believed to be, in the main, from North America.Wray was a director at Swindon for four years until October 2012, and took the chair for his final 18 months at the County Ground.An investment manager by trade, he was part of the consortium led by Andrew Fitton which saved Swindon from going under in January 2008.Day was deputy managing director at Blues to Karren Brady for two-and-a-half years from April 1993.The SMW consortium are prepared to play a waiting game.And, basically, they have no choice.BIHL were arranging a process whereby they would sell an initial 24 per cent stake in Blues, with the rest of their 96 per cent shareholding disposed over time.The idea was to generate cash so that they could diversify their business interests and therefore keep their listing.But the Hong Kong Stock Exchange took issue with this and started to have a closer look at the operations of BIHL and chief executive Peter Pannu.And, to this date, BIHL have still received no firm details from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange about how they could proceed with any sale.So SMW, although still in contact with Blues, have no option but to sit tight and wait for clarity.
Posted on: Thu, 04 Sep 2014 10:40:00 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015