The company behind Birmingham City, chaired by embattled Hong Kong tycoon Carson Yeung, is in talks with two potential buyers of the English football club.

Discussions are still in the early stages and all parties have signed confidentiality agreements, said the club’s parent company Birmingham International Holdings in a filing to the city’s stock ex-change yesterday.

The latest talks come after the Hong Kong-based firm said in a statement last month that it had rejected an offer, from an unnamed party, which it deemed as “not attractive”.

The South China Morning Post named the failed buyer as an Italian consortium led by Gianni Paladini, the former chairman of Premier League club Queens Park Rangers, which had offered £12 million ($19.2 million).

Birmingham City – relegated from the Premiership last year, three months after winning the League Cup – is owned by hairdresser-turned-football tycoon Yeung, who has been charged with money laundering in Hong Kong.

Yeung was arrested on five counts of offences in June last year after investigations revealed around $93 million passed through his accounts, but the exact nature of the allegations remain unclear.

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