Billionaire in advanced talks over West Brom investment deal, could result in full takeover
Egyptian billionaire Mohamed Elkashashy is part of a group that’s in advanced talks to buy a minority stake at West Brom, according to The Athletic.
The news outlet reported on Thursday (15 June) that Manchester-based sports lawyer Chris Farnell is also involved the group, whose potential investment at The Hawthorns could eventually result in a full takeover.
Yunyi Guokai (Shanghai) Sports Development Limited currently owns an 88 per cent stake of the Baggies. Guochuan Lai’s representatives have previously reached out to Elkashashy and Farnell in 2020 after they failed in a bid to buy Burnley.
Good news?
It’s always hard to tell whether a change of ownership means things will improve or get worse.
However, in the case of West Brom, a low bar has been set.
The Chinese ownership at The Hawthorns has been a complete and utter farce with the Black Country club losing it’s Premier League status under their control.
Albion fans are up in arms about the way has been run behind the scenes with controlling shareholder Lai taking out a £5million loan, failing to repay it and then having it written off in the latest set of accounts.
Overall, Lai owes over £10million to the Baggies, who also took out a £20million loan from MSD Holdings last season which has a ridiculously high-interest rate and has been made against all club assets, including The Hawthorns.
The sooner Lai and his cronies are out, the better and we do hope that this possible investment from Elkashashy and Farnell leads to there being absolutely no more Chinese influence at the club.
Elkashashy is reportedly a billionaire with The Sunday Mirror reporting on 8 November, 2020 that he’s worth £9.65billion.
We doubt that his money and possible ownership of the Baggies will be more complex than the one we’re currently under but every change of ownership should be treated with caution.
Elkashashy and Farnell were part of the 2020 Charlton takeover saga and Farnell has also been linked to the infamous Laurence Bassini.
It’s not great by the looks of it. But as mentioned, the bar is currently a very low one and any takeover news at The Hawthorns right now will be perceived as good news.
In other West Brom news, a door has opened for the Albion to potentially re-sign Matheus Pereira.