Football financier Keith Harris is leading a bid to buy a 45% stake in Premier League football club Crystal Palace in a deal that could be worth nearly £200m.
Sky News has learned that Mr Harris is advising a group of businessmen including Zakaria Janjua and Nafshir Jaffer on a bid for shareholding in Eagle Football, a company set up by American businessman John Textor and owner of a number of major clubs around the world.
Sources said on Thursday that the consortium advised by Mr Harris was the main contender to buy the stake in Eagles, although they cautioned that at least one party, and possibly two others, were also in discussions with Mr Textor.
Harris Group, which is likely to implement its deal through a recently created institutional vehicle called Sportbank, may also need financing from other investors as part of its plans, the sources added.
Eagle Football is said to be hoping a deal to dispose of its stake in Crystal Palace will value the club, which recorded its first Premier League win against Tottenham Hotspur last weekend, at more than £400m.
Stanley Tang, co-founder of US-based food delivery company DoorDash, is also understood to have expressed interest in acquiring Eagle Football’s stake in Crystal Palace.
A spokesman for Tang denied he was in discussions to buy Crystal Palace’s stake in Eagle Football.
Mr Textor, who declined to comment, is keen to own a controlling stake in a club in the top flight of English football and came close to securing a deal to buy Everton over the summer.
Instead, Everton’s long-time owner has agreed a deal with Dan Friedkin, owner of Serie A club Roma.
Eagle Football’s other football interests include Olympique Lyonnais in France, Botafogo, who currently lead Brazil’s top flight, and RWD Molenbeek in Belgium.
This week, the holding company issued a statement confirming that it is preparing to submit a confidential filing to US regulators ahead of a public listing in the first quarter of next year.
Sky News revealed in August that Eagle Football had tapped investment banks Stifel and TD Cowen to work on an initial public offering (IPO).
The stake in Crystal Palace is being sold by Rayne Group, which was involved in recent deals involving Chelsea and Manchester United.
Eagle Football said in its statement this week that it will seek $100 million from the sale of shares in the company before the IPO, in addition to another $500 million as part of the flotation itself.
It also wants to raise up to $500 million to repay existing senior debt, which will be achieved through the sale of its stake in Crystal Palace Football Club and possibly an issue of long-term senior bonds.
Collectively, the moves are expected to help Mr Textor achieve an enterprise value for Eagle Football of around $2.3bn (£1.74bn), they said.
In the past, Textor has spoken of his belief that public ownership of football teams provides fans with greater transparency over the management of their clubs.
This has been described as the democratization of ownership – an issue set to face greater scrutiny now that the new Labor government has reintroduced a bill on football regulation to Parliament.
However, some clubs with listed shares, including Manchester United, have suffered from a tense relationship with fans, partly because their voting rights are controlled by a single dominant shareholder.
Mr. Harris declined to comment on Thursday.