**Hong Kong-based businessman Carson Yeung has made a £1-a-share cash offer for Birmingham City FC, which values the club at £81.51m.**Mr Yeung’s Grandtop International Holdings bought a 29.9% stake in the club in June 2007, but stopped short of buying the rest.
It made a £3m deposit for the English Premier League club on Thursday.
Grandtop said that it had already received acceptances of its offer that would take its holding to 80%.
In a statement to the London Stock Exchange, Grandtop said it planned to “develop the club by investing in and strengthening the squad and infrastructure of the club over time”.
It also said that it planned to “significantly increase its global fan base”, especially in Hong Kong and mainland China.
Mr Yeung was criticised by the Birmingham board in 2007 for not completely buying out chairman David Gold and co-owner David Sullivan.
The Hong Kong businessman had been set a deadline of 21 December 2007 to complete his buy-out, but the Blues released a statement to the Stock Exchange on 20 December 2007 to announce that discussions had been terminated.