Who are Singapore’s Loh cousins and why are they bidding for Newcastle United Football Club?

With backgrounds in banking and businesses reportedly worth billions, Nelson and Terence Loh are the latest Asians with Premier League ambitions

In swooping on the club, analysts say their Bellagraph Nova Group is also being a canny Magpie: soccer can be a ‘sexy’ – and rewarding – investment

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Newcastle United are known as ‘The Magpies’ for their black and white home strip. Photo: AFP

Published: 9:00pm, 19 Aug 2020Updated: 10:27am, 20 Aug 2020

A pair of wealthy Singapore entrepreneurs has sparked excitement among football fans with a bid for English Premier League club Newcastle United that, if successful, will see them join the growing ranks of Asian business magnates to have a stake in the beautiful game.

Nelson Loh and Terence Loh, who are cousins, together with Evangeline Shen, a China-educated former banker and lawyer, are co-founders of the Bellagraph Nova Group, which on Saturday said it was in an “advanced stage of negotiation” for the takeover of the club, popularly known as The Magpies for their black and white home strip.

“In addition to the engagement to the Newcastle Football Club and community, Bellagraph Nova Group enlisted [the] help of [former] England captain Alan Shearer and former player Michael Chopra,” it said, adding that it had provided a letter of intent and proof of funds.

“We wish to close the deal as soon as possible and do some big things for the club and for the community. We already have the support of many fans.”

The Loh cousins, former investment bankers, have kept a lower profile than other businessmen such as billionaire Peter Lim who in 2014 successfully bid for ownership of Spanish club Valencia. In media interviews, the Lohs describe themselves as keen to disrupt existing industries and have demonstrated their connections to world leaders including former US president Barack Obama with a photograph of them featured prominently on the group’s website.

The Loh cousins also got Obama to agree to be a keynote speaker at a fundraising gala for four Singapore charities, when the 44th American president visited the city state last December with his wife Michelle for two events organised by the Australian company The Growth Faculty.