Birmingham City moved closer to becoming the tenth Barclays Premier League club under foreign ownership yesterday when Carson Yeung became their largest shareholder. The Hong Kong businessman completed his purchase of 29.9 per cent of the shares at a cost of almost £15 million and hopes to complete a takeover as soon as possible.

Yeung’s company, Grandtop International Holdings Limited (GHIL), bought the shares from five directors – David and Ralph Gold, David Sullivan, Karren Brady and Roger Bannister – having paid a nonrefundable deposit of £1.09 million on June 27 in expectation of the deal.

An increase in his holding to 30 per cent would allow Yeung to make a bid to assume full control. Birmingham then would follow Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United, Aston Villa, West Ham United, Portsmouth, Fulham, Sunderland and Manchester City in being owned by foreigners.

“I only want to buy for interest because I love football,” Yeung said. “I like the city of Birmingham and have a lot of good plans for the future. As soon as we can, I would like to own the whole club.” Yeung intends to give Steve Bruce, the manager, help in the transfer market. “We can spend a lot of money in the right way,” he said.