Bid for Premier League Club

AN ALTRINCHAM property tycoon Nabeel Chowdery has put in a multi-million pound bid to take over Blackburn Rovers Football Club.

Nabeel has offered £40m for the Premier League outfit – but the club is believed to be holding out for £60m.

Mr Chowdery, who is a friend of Rovers keeper Brad Friedel, said; “We believe the club is worth about £40m, but they want £60m.

“I have submitted my bid and my offer stands at £40m. I am ready to do business if they come back to me.”

Mr Chowdery added that although he had not been actively looking to take over a football club it was ‘an opportunity that came up’.

Although he would not be pinned down on figures he said if he took over the club there would be money available for new manager Paul Ince to buy players.

He added: “I won’t be involved in the day to day running of the club, I will be bringing in professional management to run it. Although I might not have the football knowledge, I know about commerce and business. My takeover of the club would help it grow and ensure a better future for it.”

However, a spokesman for Rothschilds, the brokers working on behalf of the Walkers Trustees, said: “He hasn’t spoken to me although that doesn’t mean to say that he hasn’t spoken to anyone else at Rothschilds. Things are going slowly. From our point of view there is no new story at the moment.”

And Rovers chairman John Williams added: “Our position is that there are a number of interested parties, but there is no new news. There is nothing imminent.”

Former North Cestrian Grammar School pupil Mr Chowdery, aged 34, was ranked as the joint 562nd richest person in Britain in a national newspaper’s ‘rich list’ this year, with a fortune estimated at more than £140m.

Earlier this year his Property Route company completed a £15m deal to buy the 24,500 sq ft Grafton shopping centre and seven storey office block in Altrincham.

Last year he bought Ashley House in Altrincham for £4m, as the base for Property Route. He also sold the Deansgate office block, Lancaster Buildings, for £12.7m, three years after buying it for £8.7m, and the Island site in Manchester for £15m.

He bought Denzell House and gardens in Bowdon for £2.8m several years ago and will open a new office there in September.

This article was originally published on messengernewspapers.co.uk.