One of the most complex things to understand about Birmingham City is just who owns the club. While the simple answer would be to point to the Hong Kong listed company Birmingham Sports Holdings, the ownership of that company is opaque due to the number of investment vehicles incorporated in the British Virgin Islands who own stakes in the company. Throw into the mix people owning stakes in the club directly and you’ve got a mess.
What’s in a name? Quite a lot if you judge the buzz on some Blues Facebook groups recently. News and pictures that Birmingham City have removed the former sign outside Wast Hills proclaiming the “Trillion Trophy Training Ground” has been met with thoughts that the club is being sold. Unfortunately for them, it’s not the case.
On Friday, I published a lengthy article outlining just how tangled a web the ownership of Birmingham City FC is. In this article I am concentrating on new shareholders in the club Oriental Rainbow Investments Ltd – and why their investment is indicative of issues the club faces.
The recent partial sale of Birmingham City to investment vehicle Oriental Rainbow Investments along with the recent share subscription completed by Birmingham Sports Holdings has complicated the question of who actually owns the club a little bit further. As the structure of the ownership of the club becomes more Byzantine, it’s become increasingly difficult for fans to understand.
As we heard into December, It won’t be long before the accounts for Birmingham City FC will be published at Companies House. These accounts will give a full insight into the financial situation of the club at the start of this season and should help us understand just how much money the club can spend this winter.
The rumour season is once again in full swing on social media, with rumours not just of impending incomings and exits at Blues but talk of potential changes in ownership. None of these rumours have any basis in fact as it stands – I wrote this article to explain why Blues won’t be sold any time soon.
Now that the dust has settled on the sacking of Garry Monk and the players have returned for testing ahead of pre-season training, transfers are once again becoming the focus of Birmingham City fans. Will Blues be spending big? Can they spend big?
In the fallout from everything that happened on Thursday one of the most common questions I’ve been asked what I know about the motives of the owners of Birmingham City.
While Blues secured their Championship status for another year by winning away at Rotherham on Monday, Birmingham Sports Holdings have been doing what it can to secure its own financial status on the Hong Kong stock exchange.
Just prior to announcing their interim results on Thursday, Birmingham Sports Holdings also announced a rights issue in an attempt to raise HK$297.7million. The purpose of the rights issue is to reduce the frightening levels of borrowing within the company and to provide more working capital to keep the company going.
