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Wolves owners consider listing

Chinese conglomerate Fosun International is trying to sell a stake in Wolves as it gauges appetite for an eventual listing of the football club. Listings were popular in the 1990s as a means of raising funds but have fallen out of favour with only a small handful of clubs left with tradeable shares. However, Wolves would be part of a unit containing other sport-related assets.

'It's more to test the market, to see the value of Wolves,' said club chairman Jeff Shi. Wolves, he added, was also looking for an investor to promote the team outside of China.

The club is selling a stake valued at £50m - £100m. This would represent about 20 per cent of its equity, valuing Wolves at £350m. The sale has failed to attract a buyer for some months. It is not clear what the attraction of such a minority stake would be, other than capital appreciation, but they may have largely occurred already.

Fosun paid £45m for the club in 2016. It faces an undisclosed writedown of its investment in liquidated travel firm Thomas Cook. Mr Shi denied the stake sale was due to a shortage of funds at Fosun.

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