EPL side Queens Park Rangers set to be sold?

English Premier League newcomers Queens Park Ranger FC are in talks with a potential buyer. But not all stakeholders of the West London club are involved in the talks over the sale. The majority owner Bernie Ecclestone and minority stakeholder Flavio Briatore are said to be in talks with Air Asia chief Tony Fernandes, while another owner in Lakshmi N. Mittal's family is said not to be involved.

A press release from QPR yesterday said
On 4th March 2011 the Company (QPR Holdings Limited) announced that it was in preliminary discussions with a potential purchaser.
At the time the Takeover Panel confirmed that should those discussions result in an offer being made for the Company, the offer would be subject to the City Code on Takeovers and Mergers (the Code), even if such an offer was made after 2nd April 2011, being the date on which the Company ceased to be subject to the Code, due to it being de-listed 10 years previously.

The Company confirms that these discussions came to an end in March 2011.
Since the end of these discussions, the Company has entered into preliminary discussions with a different party and can confirm that these discussions and any subsequent transaction would not be subject to the Code.
Accordingly the Company confirms that it is no longer in an offer period for the purposes of the Code.

An offer of around 100 Million Pounds has come in from Tony Fernandes which the Ecclestone/Briatore are considering to accept. Earlier in the year the Mittal family had offered around 50 Million Pounds for a complete takeover of the club, but it had been turned down. Last year United Breweries Group chairman Vijay Mallya from India had made a lower bid for the then English Championships (Division 2), but only the Ecclestone/Briatore shares which the duo had turned it down.

Interesting to note about Tony Fernandes' interest is that over the last season he twice tried to buy east London side West Ham United, even saying he is a big Hammers fan; now he seems to have set his sight on their west London rivals after failing to land the Hammers.

With Queens Park Ranger not spending much in the transfer market after their return to the Premier League after 15 years a quick decision if the sale is done or not is needed, so if a new investor comes in he could splash some cash to strengthen Neil Warnock's team.