Shanghai Sharks Basketball Club fully acquired by Shanghai Jiushi

It has been reported that the Chinese Basketball Association club Shanghai Sharks has been fully transferred to Shanghai Jiushi Group with the acquisition being approved by the CBA board at a recent board meeting. 

There has been no official disclosure by either party as to the acquisition fee because there are no relevant CBA rules that requires clubs or investors to reveal the acquisition fees. It is estimated that it is likely to be around CNY500m or above. 

Before the transfer to Jiushi, Yao Ming, the CBA Chairman and previous owner of Shanghai Sharks, had bought back the 40% shares he sold to Everbright Sports Culture Industry Equity, China Media Capital and other organizations in 2016 to transfer the club to Jiushi as a whole. 

Yao Ming started to run the basketball club in 2009 and after five years of operations and considering the lack of rich funding support, in 2016, Yao Ming sold 40% of the shares to Everbright Sports Culture Industry Equity, CMC and two other state-owned companies. 

Since the first partial transfer, Yao Ming has not been involved much in the daily operation and decisions of the club although he still remained the largest shareholder. 

Shanghai Jiushi have sent a management team led by the former Shanghai Sharks executive Qian Anke to the club to take over the team. Qian Anke was the Marketing Director and Deputy GM of the Sharks in 2009-2012. 

Reference: iFeng Sports 

Proofread by Raymond Fitzpatrick