Hong Kong businessman Carson Yeung has become Birmingham's largest single shareholder after buying 29.9% of shares from the club's directors.
David and Ralph Gold, David Sullivan, Karren Brady and Roger Bannister have all sold some of their shares to Yeung.

The deal is worth nearly £15m and could still lead to a potential £50m takeover of the club by the 47-year-old.

If Yeung increased his holding to 30% then it would allow him to trigger a bid to assume full control.

Yeung had paid a non-refundable deposit of £1.09m on 27 June in anticipation of the deal.

The Gold brothers and David Sullivan each sold 14.81% of the club's shares to Yeung.

Brady has parted with a 0.23% stake, while Bannister has sold 0.05%.

Sullivan and the Golds will still maintain a major role, though the door is open for Yeung to gain a controlling interest.

In the new arrangement the stakes of the Gold brothers and Sullivan have fallen to 23.22% each.

Brady's revised holding will be 0.54% and Bannister will retain 0.11%.

Yeung was previously one of the main backers of Hong Kong Rangers and former coach Tim Bredbury, sacked three games into last season, accused the billionaire of intervening in team affairs.

However, Yeung countered: "I never told the manager who to play or gave him ideas.

"On the day Bredbury was fired I was in Beijing. I heard the news that he was already fired and I was very upset because I was the chairman and the club fired the coach and I didn't know.

"I don't have any politics and I only want to buy for interest because I love football. I will not let the Birmingham fans down and disappoint them."

He is relishing the prospect and said: "I like the city of Birmingham and have a lot of good plans for the future. I'm very happy and excited.

"The Premiership is the best league in the world and most countries focus on it - especially in China and Hong Kong.

"We have a great market in China and David Gold and David Sullivan have accepted our plan. As soon as we can I would like to own the whole club.

"We can buy some good players in January but maybe by then we might already be in a healthy position so we will wait and see."

Yeung says meeting Birmingham boss Steve Bruce is his top priority.

He added: "We can spend a lot of money in the right way but first I want to meet (manager) Steve Bruce as soon as possible.

"I have a lot of confidence in Steve Bruce, he is a very straight man and we could have a good relationship.

"I want us to grow together and make the side successful, as I believe we can stay up as long as we play like a team."


http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/foot...ty/6900404.stm