Vincent Tan, the billionaire Malaysian, is in the planning stage of an initial public offer of shares of footbal club Cardiff City as early as this 2013. The deal was disclosed to Reuters by anonymous sources familiar with the transaction.
This comes after the club was recently promoted to the Premiere League and is still in its early stages. According to the sources, details on the schedule, volume and bourse for the IPO would still be decided on and may even be subject to many changes.
The listing of Cardiff City comes after the initial listing by Manchester United Plc at the New York Stock Exchange last year. That IPO was able to raise US$233.2 million and was one of the biggest ever IPOs for a sports team ever done. In comparison, Cardiff City does not have the large consumer fan base or brand recognition, which makes for the possible reception by the market quite unclear.
Tan currently owns 36.1% of the football club and has been said to have engaged one investment bank to explore the process. The initial plan, according to the sources was to list the IPO in the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange.
Tan could not be reached for comment. He is the former of the Berjaya Group, a Malaysian conglomerate and is Malaysia's tenth richest with a reported worth of US$1.3 billion, according to Forbes.
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