Bahrain-based International Investment Bank (IIB) has bought a 10 percent stake in Leeds United from the owners (Gulf Finance House, GFH) who took over the football club three months ago. The price paid has not been revealed.
Dubai-based GFH Capital said the deal was part of its strategy of bringing in additional investors to develop the Championship club. It paid 22 million pounds in December to buy out shareholders including Ken Bates, the former Chelsea owner.
Bahrain-based International Investment Bank (IIB) has bought a 10 percent stake in Leeds United from the owners (Gulf Finance House, GFH) who took over the football club three months ago. The price paid has not been revealed.
Dubai-based GFH Capital said the deal was part of its strategy of bringing in additional investors to develop the Championship club. It paid 22 million pounds in December to buy out shareholders including Ken Bates, the former Chelsea owner.
There was confusion over the future of the former Premier League club when it emerged last week that GFH Capital’s parent firm had said in its annual report that the club was already up for sale again. GFH Capital is a Dubai-based subsidiary of the parent company and the entity emphasised in today’s announcement.
GFH Capital’s insistence that it wants only to sell ‘strategic’ stakes in the club, and statements in GFH’s annual accounts that the parent fund intends to sell the whole club, led to uncertainty about who was calling the shots. So far, according to Bloomberg, the Bahraini stock exchange, on which GFH is listed, has received no formal clarification about which investment policy is the true one, but today’s events suggest that it is GFH Capital that is making the running.
GFH expects other investors to join, providing Leeds with ‘sound long-term finance’, said the club. ‘We hope they’re in a position to inject some much needed cash, to be invested on the pitch to build a team for next season,’ said Gary Cooper of Leeds United Supporters’ Trust. Whilst fans may question the wisdom of investment from yet another Bahrain-based organisation, GFH insists it is the only way Leeds can recover their former status.
David Haigh, deputy chief executive of GFH Capital said, ‘We believe that a consortium of like-minded investors provides the best ownership model for a club which belongs among the elite of English football clubs and global sporting brands. It is our aim to provide the finance and the stability to enable the club to complete that journey as soon as possible.’
IIB’s chief executive, Aabed Al-Zeera, will join the board of Leeds City Holdings Limited, the company which runs the club. IIB’s website describes its business as investing in property and private equity in conformity with Islamic shariah principles. It has scaled back its investment activities in recent years following the global financial crisis and reported revenues of only $3.1 million in 2011.