Birmingham to pay Yeung up to HK$1.5b for mainland plot

English Premier League football club owner Birmingham International Holdings will pay its chairman and controlling shareholder Carson Yeung Ka-sing up to HK$1.5 billion for a large piece of vacant land in the mainland's northeastern Liaoning province.

Hong Kong-listed Birmingham, which bought the Birmingham City football club in 2009, said it plans to buy the 1 million-square-metre site in the Panjin Economic Development Zone from Yeung 'to diversify the business of the group'.

The land is currently zoned for industrial use, but the cash-and-shares deal calls for Yeung to attempt to have it rezoned for commercial and residential development, the company said yesterday.

However, Birmingham described the transaction as an investment in 'sports-related concepts, which include development of property in the PRC, development of community with unique British style and life culture [sic], and development of integrated property project [sic] by injecting British high [sic] and new industrial, educational and sports (including but not limited to football) elements under the brand 'Birmingham'.'

Liaoning has seen more colourful developments than a British-themed industrial-sports-housing complex.

The rust-belt province was earlier home to the massive 'Holland Village' developed by disgraced Chinese-Dutch tycoon Yang Bin, which featured a full-size replica of the Peace Palace in The Hague, Amsterdam's central train station, windmills, castles, a Venice water park, a zoo and vacation villas.

But Holland Village became a white elephant after Yang was jailed in 2003 for 18 years for fraud and bribery. The site was bulldozed in 2009.