Billionaire Wang buys stake in soccer club

Beijing

WANG Jianlin, China's second-richest man, is buying a 20 per cent stake in Spanish soccer team Atletico Madrid while eyeing more deals including another European club and a multibillion-euro unspecified purchase in Spain.

Dalian Wanda Group will pay 45 million euros (S$70 million) for the Atletico stake, marking the first investment by a Chinese company in a top European soccer club, Wanda said in a statement announcing the agreement. Mr Wang, who is Wanda's chairman and founder, said on Wednesday he'd also met Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to discuss a 3 billion euro "megadeal".