Birmingham Sports Holdings made a supplemental announcement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Tuesday afternoon to clarify certain points about the deal that has been agreed to sell a stake in Birmingham City to Shelby Companies Limited. The four page announcement was designed to answer questions shareholders might have but has seemingly just caused more for Blues fans.
It’s safe to say that while on the pitch the season is coming to an anticlimactic end for Blues, off it appears to be a very different story. It hasn’t taken long for the rumours to fly on social media of just which investors might be behind potential new owners Often Partisan Limited.
It was reported on Wednesday that Paul Richardson, Maxi Lopez and Matt Southall have all accepted sanctions from the EFL following charges relating to the failed Maxco takeover. While there hasn’t been any official confirmation yet, the reports have stated all three have accepted suspended bans from involvements with EFL clubs.
It’s been two months since news broke of the Often Partisan Limited bid to take over Birmingham City with very little updates on progress. Although the radio silence has been understandable after the Maxco fiasco earlier in the season, the longer it has gone on the more nerves are starting to show among Blues fans.
Birmingham Sports Holdings published their interim accounts for the six months ending December 2022 on Tuesday afternoon. As expected, the Hong Kong listed company have posted another loss, but while the accounts are unaudited there are a few bits we can take from it that tell us more about the state Birmingham City is in right now.
With both the previous Maxco bid and the current Often Partisan Limited offer for the club, there is a long drawn-out multi-stage process to complete the deal. Part of the issue is a two-year period put in place for Birmingham Sports Holdings to find another company to replace the club in the group, before finally relinquishing control.
Both Birmingham City and Hong Kong parent company Birmingham Sports Holdings released statements on Wednesday confirming the end to negotiations with Maxco Capital Ltd. Both of the statements made took a somewhat “bitter ex” theme, with the wording suggesting it was incumbent owners who terminated talks rather than Maxco.
Birmingham Sports Holdings announced their latest accounts to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Friday afternoon. The accounts are for the year ending 30 June 2022 and correspond to the 2021/2022 football season for Blues. While the company once again made a loss, the amount BSH lost has been reduced, which will surely please investors.
It’s been three days since Paul Richardson and Maxi Lopez turned up at St Andrew’s to tell the world that they’d exchanged contracts and were to become the next owners of Birmingham City. While there has been fairly extensive reporting of their meetings with club officials, the silence from Hong Kong has continued.
It’s now been over eight weeks since Blues fans were told in a Birmingham Mail / Mirror report that the takeover was “close”. Despite being told in an announcement to the HKSE three weeks ago that Vong Pech had agreed to sell his share and a “deadline” being given by Bassini of June 30, as Blues fans we still await any official confirmation that any deal has been done.
