Bidders break silence on Newcastle United takeover bid

BNG made a £280million offer for the club in the summer. The bid was fronted by former United striker Michael Chopra.

Shen – who co-founded BNG with cousins Nelson and Terence Loh – has spoken about the group’s interest in the Premier League club in an interview with the BBC.

BNG have already looked into potential managerial candidates and players, according to Shen.

"Bidding for Newcastle is part of our strategy, because it's a well-known football club, but still has room to improve, and we believe that improvement is good for the club as well as for our brand,” said Shen.

"We started real planning for the club such as whom to hire as trainer and whom to sign for players.”

Shen claims that the group is “aggressively” pursuing a deal for the club – and last week met a representative of United owner Mike Ashley, who is taking legal action against the Premier League over their stance on a proposed Saudi Arabia-backed takeover.

"We’re always in contact, and we’re still very aggressive on trying to close the deal,” said Shen. “I can tell you our team just met Mike Ashley's representative last week on the process in Paris again."

BNG were forced to defend their bid in August after it emerged that they had issued a doctored photograph of Shen and the Loh cousins with former US President Barack Obama.

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