Birmingham City holding company fires CEO Peter Pannu
Divided board of troubled listed company reveals sacking this month of Peter Pannu
PUBLISHED : Sunday, 21 December, 2014, 5:13am
UPDATED : Sunday, 21 December, 2014, 5:13am
Bryan Harris [email protected]
Birmingham City boss Carson Yeung is serving a six-year sentence.
Businessman Peter Pannu has been fired as the chief executive officer and managing director of the trouble-hit Hong Kong listed company that controls English soccer club Birmingham City.
Pannu is the right-hand man of the company's former boss, convicted money launderer Carson Yeung Ka-sing, who is serving a six-year sentence in Stanley Prison for laundering dirty cash through a Macau casino and a securities company, among others.
The decision to fire him for "exceeding his authority" was made at a meeting of Birmingham International Holdings directors in Hong Kong this month, in a split decision that laid bare bitter boardroom divisions.
Pannu has hit back, telling the Post he took the proper corporate action and did not over-step his authority.
The company made public his removal last Monday, 24 hours before his boss Yeung - who still owns a 28.5 per cent stake in the Hong Kong-listed company - was refused bail pending an appeal on his conviction this year for laundering HK$721 million.
Pannu, a former Hong Kong police officer who went on to become a barrister, went into business with Yeung, who bought what was then English Premier League club Birmingham City.
Pannu had been under fire for a number of weeks after a series of online posts - purportedly from him - suggested the soccer club could soon run out of money and raised questions about whether Yeung still wielded influence at the company.
The posts prompted inquiries from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Days later, trading was halted in the shares of the holding company and Pannu resigned from his positions at the club.
However, according to the draft minutes of a December 12 directors' meeting obtained by the Sunday Morning Post, Pannu was stripped of his positions at the parent company for "exceeding his authority".
Pannu had weeks earlier signed a non-disclosure agreement with a prospective buyer of the British soccer team in an exploratory move that the board deemed to be too much.
Last week, Pannu hit back, saying he had earlier informed the board about his plans and thus had power to "conduct such a corporate act".
Pannu also claimed his termination was instigated by the company's vice-chairman, Ma Shui-cheong, after he launched a probe into the alleged misappropriation of funds by Ma.
"Ma is the subject of a police inquiry for missing funds which [were] spotted by our auditor and the compliance officers. I probed into these matters as the CEO … this removal is a retaliation," he said.
Ma did not respond to multiple phone and email inquiries from the Sunday Morning Post. Police would not confirm whether there was an inquiry.
Amid the upheaval - and the continued cessation of trading - the company on Wednesday announced that it would postpone its annual general meeting, which was originally set for Tuesday, until January 6.
One topic likely up for discussion will be the soccer team's finances, which are in dire straits as a result of falling turnover and high operating losses.
