Chainrai keen to recoup funds

Chainrai: Looking to recoup funds

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Portsmouth owner Balu Chainrai is confident he will be able to recover the money he has loaned the troubled football club.

The Hong Kong businessman took control of the South Coast outfit from Ali Al-Faraj in February after the club defaulted on loans from him.

Chainrai had shelled out at least £17million to to keep the club afloat through Portpin, the company he owns with his Israeli business partner, Levi Kushnir, and their associates.

Those loans were secured against the stadium, the club's future television revenue and Faraj's 90 per cent share.

Despite Portsmouth entering administration to combat spiralling debts, Chainrai remains confident that while the club remains in business, so do his chances to recouping his money.

"I don't feel I've lost the money," he told Bloomberg TV. "I feel the money is there, I can see it. If the club is alive my money is alive.

"There were court cases against the club, it was a possibility that the club would have been wound up, and if that happened everybody would have lost their jobs.

"I would have lost my money and my main focus was to actually stabilise the club, to try and get my money back. The only way I could do it was to exercise my right to seize the shares."

Objective

Administrator Andrew Andronikou announced 85 job cuts on Wednesday and promised more if the club is relegated, as seems likely if the Premier League enforce a nine-point deduction for entering administration.

Chainrai admitted his priority is to find a buyer for the 2008 FA Cup winners.

"The main objective is to sell off the club to some consortium or institution or person, who would be able to be responsible enough to stabilise it and run it properly," he continued.

"I've heard through my lawyers that they are in conversations with several parties. They are deep into talks that could finalise in the very near future."