Autobiography

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
C24. MONEY, MONEY, MONEY
I am often asked to name the business deal
which has given me the most satisfaction.
There are a number of contenders but one that
has to be near the top of the list was the sale
of Birmingham City FC to Carson Yeung and his
Grandtop International Holdings Company in
October 2009. David Sullivan, Ralph and
myself controlled 80% of the shares in the club
and sold 29.9% to Yeung for £15 million in
2007 which valued the club at £50 million. Two
years later we were paid almost £40 million for
our remaining 50.1% interest in the club, This
followed our decision not to accept anything
less than £1 a share, valuing the club at £82
million - £32 million more than the original
offer.
The bottom line was that, having acquired the
shares for the nominal payment of just £1 in
1993, we ended up with around £55 million for
parting with them.
The transaction took place at a time when the
UK had yet to show any signs of coming out of
it’s worst-ever recession and it is fair to say
most Premier League and Football League
boardrooms were amazed by the deal. While
the sale was being completed, a number of
other club chairmen came up to me and said,
‘How on earth did you do it?’
One explanation, apart from the obvious one
concerning that word ‘luck’, is that after the
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