Reading are set to complete a £50 million sale to William Storey, the British businessman and former Formula One team backer.
The Telegraph understands that terms on the deal were broadly agreed on Wednesday following negotiations between Storey and Dai Yongge, the Chinese owner of the troubled League One club.
Storey, who has recently failed with takeover bids for Sunderland and Coventry City, has pledged to clear club debt in a deal understood to be worth around £50 million and which includes the stadium and the state-of-the-art Bearwood Park training ground.
The 45-year-old is also said to have promised privately to invest in the playing staff once a transfer embargo is lifted.
Storey is understood to have bought the club outright, albeit having sourced some of the funding from wealthy backers. He will now be subject to the Football League’s test for fit and proper owners, which will be vigorous due to new regulations.
It is hoped that this process will take about six weeks, though the new ownership team were planning to begin work this week nonetheless.
Storey is said to have met Ruben Selles, the Reading manager, but otherwise has kept a low profile during negotiations in recent weeks as interested parties circled the club.
The Telegraph reported on Wednesday that Yongge had rejected an offer from Genevra Associates, an investment group with offices in Luxembourg and the United States.
In 2019, Storey was the title sponsor of the Haas F1 team through his drink brand Rich Energy, though the relationship proved acrimonious and short-lived, with Storey leaving the sport before the following season.
From Richmond, south-west London, he has also worked in boxing and has been looking to invest in a Football League club for some time.
He has agreed to purchase at a low point in the club’s recent history, with Reading third from bottom in League One having been relegated last season following a troubled campaign on and off the pitch.
They went down from the Championship as the result of a six-point penalty for breaching the EFL’s profitability and sustainability rules.
The HMRC then served them with a winding-up petition in June over unpaid taxes and the club remains under a transfer embargo imposed as a result of their financial problems.
Fans who had been campaigning for Yongge to sell up will now hope that Storey can restore the fortunes of a club who were in the Premier League as recently as 2013.
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