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Chinese Takeover Bid Ends

It seems that the company in China looking to take over Saints have now ended their interest in doing so.

Lander Sports the Chinese company who were looking to take over at St Mary's have announced to the Chinese stockmarket that they have ended their bid for a stake in Saints.

In the announcement they said.

"Whether the company can eventually complete the acquisition of the target firm's shares remains uncertain.

"To keep to principle of prudence, ensure the company's development remains normal and to safeguard the majority of investors' interests, the company has decided to end this major asset restructuring."

What that means is unclear although it does seem to indicate that they will no longer be continuing with their bid.

Just what that bid was remains unclear as well, inititially when it became known Katharina Liebherr suggested that it was not to buy the club outright but around half of it for £190 million or thereabouts.

At the time the bid was announced by Lander Sports it came as a surprise to the fans and also to the club as they thought that both parties had agreed to keep the deal quiet for the time being.

This was the first indication that perhaps Lander Sports were not the type of company that Saints supporters would want involved, whether that was the reason for the break down in talks and the deal we will perhaps never know, but certainly from that point onwards what had seemed like a straightforward transaction now seemed to be a little more complicated.

Certainly Katharina Liebherr has always made her intention to ensure that the club's best interests are met in any deal clear as she stated back in January.

"Please understand that I can only make limited comments regarding this process but I can assure you that any steps we do take will be in the best interests of the club. A potential partnership would need to clear multiple approvals and fulfil strict criteria before being confirmed.

"The Premier League is increasingly competitive; we need to keep moving forward and look to new markets for commercial growth, innovation and to share our journey. Together we have had many years of progression and success, and ensuring this continues is the main focus of any possible partnership.”

In that statement she suggested that this was definitely a partnership and that could have been the stumbling block, did the Chinese want complete control and would that have been a good thing.

Saints fans should think carefully about what they would wish for, the Liebherr's have been good owners, they have taken the club forward and have put it on a business footing and made it competitive within those constraints.

Throwing money at the club will not suddenly make it successful, you have to take into account that however much a new owner would throw at a club the size of Saints there are still at least six other clubs with far far greater spending power and resources.

Our current structure will only take us so far, Katharina Liebherr is right to seek a partner in taking us forward, but it should be a partner and not a new owner, gone are the days when rich owners can throw in what they want and hopefully gone are the days when they can also just pull out and leave that club on the brink of extinction as our friends down the road at Pompey found out.

Katharina Liebherr is going about things the right way, she has been honourable in the way that she has picked this club up after her Father's death and got it back on track off the field to the point it is now self sufficient.

Those who say she is lining her pockets should firstly consider that if that was the case then why did she not just sell Mane, Pelle etc last summer and pocket the money instead of reinvesting it all back into the squad and secondly why did she not just flog it to Lander for £210 million with no questions asked.

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