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According to a report in Sina Sports on Dec 27th, Ant Financial and IDG Capital planned to jointly acquire 64% of Beijing Guoan Football Club’s shares. However, these plans had to be cancelled because Jack Ma who has connections with Ant Financial is already involved in another club, Guangzhou Evergrande, through his company Alibaba. Ma has had to cancel this investment because of this conflict of interest. Then the Sinobo Group showed up and made an agreement with the CITIC Group to take 64% of Beijing Guoan’s shares.

It is said that the CITIC Group will transfer 64% of Beijing Guoan’s shares to the Sinobo Group at a price of RMB 3.55 billion, while the CITIC Group will keep its identity as a shareholder. This shows that the CITIC Group is keeping its previous promise to “Never quit Chinese football” and would also still retain a strong voice within Chinese football, while on the other hand, it also reflects the company’s resolution and confidence to “introduce changes in the way Beijing Guoan operates."

As for the executives, the new club’s Legal Representative and President will be Zhou Jinhui, the President of Sinobo Group. The Vice President and Executive Director will be designated by the CITIC Group and Sinobo Group respectively.

The name of the new club will be changed to Beijing Sinobo Guoan Football Club(BSG). This means that apart from adding the name of the new major shareholder, it will keep the name of “Guoan” which is of historic significance and the name that the Beijing football fans value most.

According to the report of the People’s Daily Online on Dec 27th, Sinobo Group has submitted an application re Beijing Guoan’s capital increase and share expansion to the Beijing Football Association (BFA) for review. Based on the BFA’s regular approval process for subscription of shares, the result of the application of Sinobo Group’s investment in BSG will be published by Jan 10, 2017 at the latest, and the consultation period will last until Jan 26, 2017.

According to the report from Yicai.com on Dec 27th, the businesses of the Sinobo Group cover estate development, asset management and investment & financial management. It is particularly focused on luxury real estate development in Beijing.

Source: Observer

Proofread by Sean O Diobhilin

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