July 24 – The long awaited completion of the sale of Premier League Southampton to Chinese construction firm Lander is apparently being delayed by Saints owner Katharina Liebherr who is reported to have had second thoughts on the sale.
Lander’s founder Gao Jisheng told Reuters: “It is not clear at the moment. The seller is having second thoughts about selling the club.”
An external PR spokesman for Lander later told Reuters that Gao had not made the comments as reported, but the reality is that having been a done deal, somewhere along the line it has come undone.
Lander had struggled to meet the deadlines of the acquisition in its exclusive negotiating period, announcing to the stock market that he had pulled out. However, after Gao managed to pull together the finance the deal came back on at a reported £210 million, despite other bidders having entered for the club.
For her part Liebherr has said very little on the sale except that the best interests of the club would be a priority in any deal.
The Premier League have given Lander’s owner Gao clearance to take an 80% stake in Southampton’s holding company.
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