Tom Wagner: American financier agrees to buy stake in Birmingham City

Birmingham go into the final game of the season sitting 17th in the Championship and set for their highest finish since 2019

American financier Tom Wagner has agreed to buy a 45.64% stake in Championship club Birmingham City.

The club say the hedge fund manager is to purchase 24% of shares from Blues’ parent company Birmingham Sports Holdings Limited (BSHL).

A further 21.64% of shares will be transferred from Oriental Rainbow Investments and Achiever Global Group.

Wagner’s company Shelby Companies Limited will also take ownership of Birmingham’s St Andrew’s stadium.

The deal is subject to approval by both the English Football League (EFL) and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

In a statement,external-link Birmingham said the club would remain under the control of the current board until the EFL had approved the owners and directors’ tests and contracts had been completed.

Wagner is expected to attend Monday’s final Championship game of the season at home to promoted Sheffield United.

The announcement of the deal comes just under a month after Birmingham’s China-based owners said they had entered a period of exclusive negotiations to sell the club.

However, BSHL have been looking for investment in Blues for some time.

Last summer former Barcelona and AC Milan striker Maxi Lopez was part of a consortium, including Blues fan and local businessman Paul Richardson, that claimed to be close to buying a 21% stake in Birmingham.

That interest was ended in December, although subsequently Lopez, Richardson and Matthew Southall admitted breaching EFL rules over the owners and directors’ test by taking control of the club without going through the proper sign-off procedure.

Meanwhile, in January the club announced its future was under discussion with regard to a “proposed investment deal”.