MALAYSIAN tycoon Dato Chan Tien Ghee has agreed to invest in Cardiff City – and has planned more talks with chairman Peter Ridsdale in Kuala Lumpur at the end of November.
Talks are at a highly delicate stage, but they could yet result in Chan helping City pay off their debt to Langston – if an agreement can be reached on a one-off payment.
The debt to Langston is £24m, but Ridsdale has been in talks with former club chairman and Langston representative Sam Hammam on what they would accept if the Bluebirds settled the debt immediately.
An outline agreement has been reached, including monthly payments to start almost immediately, and that will hopefully be signed off within the next week or so.
If City can come up with an one-off payment, and it would be substantially less than £24m, then they could look ahead with confidence.
That, plus the five-year season-ticket scheme announced last week, would help the club make transfer money available to manager Dave Jones for the January transfer window.
Ridsdale refused to reveal the extent of Chan’s initial investment, thought to be around 10 per cent, and would not react to speculation about what might happen now.
“We expect an initial investment this month,” said Ridsdale last night. “Anything beyond that would depend on sorting Langston out.
“What we agreed yesterday is that he (Chan) will make an initial investment. We will then meet for further discussions. In the meantime, I hope to get a Langston deal agreed and take it from there.”
Ridsdale revealed earlier this week he has struck a verbal agreement with the club’s biggest creditor Langston to finally settle the £24m debt.
“We’ve been talking to him (Chan) for some months and we hope to announce some investment in the next few weeks,” added Ridsdale.
