:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/35902844/484807609.0.jpg)
Thai billionaire and businessman Samrit Bunditkitsada was reported to have completed his takeover by GetReading last week; now the Telegraph are reporting that a rival consortium, based in the US, are 'bemused' by the Royals' choice of owner.
They report:
Reading's latest would-be owner is an investment partnership of American billionaires, who are bemused that their takeover offer - £5m equity, £14m for the Millennium Madejski Hotel, and £20m to pay off the football team's debts - has been relegated in favour of the Asian bid.
Diary sees their point. According to a source close to the negotiations, the US bidders were promised exclusivity to close their deal with BTG Financial Consulting, the recovery company handling the club's sale, if the Thai consortium hadn't transferred its full takeover funds to a UK bank by 5pm last Wednesday.
Diary understands Mr Bunditkitsada is still finalising the financing for his £26m takeover, after providing a £500,000 non-refundable deposit on signing a sale and purchase agreement last Thursday.
The US bidders, by contrast, have provided proof of funds "significantly in excess" of the deal price. "It is bizarre in the extreme," says the source.
Read the full piece here.
What do you think? Have Reading made an error? Is it too soon to say?