Owners to sell Southampton FC to UK company

LONDON: The company that owns Southampton soccer club has agreed to sell a controlling stake of at least 55% to an unnamed British investor. The board said Monday that, subject to shareholder approval, “a major UK-based investment company” would build its stake by acquiring a mixture of new and already issued shares.

The club is valued at about £14 million ($28.4 million), but is about £25 million ($50.7 million) in debt. “The investor has confirmed that it has the financial capacity and intention to support the ongoing development of the club and its youth academy and to strengthen its first-team squad and prospects of promotion,” Southampton Leisure Holdings, which owns the club, said. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, owner of the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks, was linked with a takeover of Southampton this year.

English businessman Ray Ranson, a former Manchester City player who has tried to buy Aston Villa and City in the past, has also been mentioned as a contender. Southampton is ninth in the second-tier League Championship, two years after demotion from the Premier League. The Saints had been in the top division for 26 years and count the 1976 FA Cup as the only trophy in their 122-year history.