Southampton have rejected an offer of £180 million from Lander Sports Development to buy the club, The Times has learnt.
Negotiations with the Chinese property company are continuing despite considerable irritation inside the club at Lander’s announcement on the Shenzhen stock exchange yesterday that an agreement had been reached in principle, but the two parties are a long way apart in their valuation of the club.
Katharina Liebherr, Southampton’s owner, is understood to value the club at £270 million so a sale is unlikely to be completed imminently. Moreover, it is unclear how much of Southampton Liebherr is willing to sell.
In an open letter to the fans yesterday the Swiss heiress referred to a “potential partnership” whereas Lander’s aim is to buy the club or secure a controlling interest.
Liebherr inherited Southampton as part of her late father Markus’s £3 billion trust after his death in 2010, a year after he had bought the club for just £14 million after they had been placed in administration.
Advertisement
Under the family’s stewardship Southampton have risen from mid-table in League One to become a top-ten Premier League club, and on Wednesday reached their first leading final for 14 years courtesy of their EFL Cup semi-final win over Liverpool.
Lander’s announcement came shortly after Southampton’s 2-0 aggregate victory, with club insiders suspicious of the timing and speculating that it was an attempt to speed up the deal.
Industry experts have valued Southampton at between £160 million and £220 million, as the club’s sound financial footing and huge success in player trading is offset by a seemingly limited potential for significantly increasing its match-day and commercial revenue.
“I can assure you that any steps we do take will be in the best interests of the clubKatharina Liebherr, Southampton owner
In the club’s most recently published accounts to June 2015, Southampton recorded turnover of £113.7 million and profits of £14.9 million, down almost £15 million from the previous year, almost exclusively because of a reduction in the value of player sales.
The club’s revenue from television rights has increased significantly from £84 million in 2014-15 to a minimum of £105 million this season, although the wage bill will also have increased. Southampton have debts of £62 million, £32.7 million of which is owed to Liebherr, with the rest split between two separate bank loans.
Advertisement
Liebherr wrote to fans yesterday to say that she would act in the best interests of the club, but insisted that greater commercial growth was crucial to its future.
“I can assure you that any steps we do take will be in the best interests of the club,” she wrote. “The Premier League is increasingly competitive; we need to keep moving forward and look to new markets for commercial growth, innovation and to share our journey.”
Southampton and Lander were unavailable for comment last night.