GFH to front Leeds purchase

The Middle-Eastern investment bank, Gulf Finance House, have confirmed they have signed an exclusive agreement to lead a takeover of Championship side Leeds.

The financial future of the Elland Road club has been up in the air since Leeds, on June 26, revealed they had granted exclusivity to a potential investor. On Saturday, current owner Ken Bates broke his summer-long silence by admitting he was in talks with a group from the Middle East.

On Thursday morning, in a letter released to the Bahrain Stock Exchange, GFH confirmed that one of their subsidiary companies, GFH Capital, were the group operating on behalf of the potential purchasers.

The letter read: "Further to the news published in the Gulf Daily News on the 25th and 26th Sep 2012, referring to the proposed acquisition of Leeds United Football Club (LUFC), GFH would like to confirm that GFH Capital Limited, a 100% subsidiary of Gulf Finance House, has signed an exclusive agreement to lead and arrange the acquisition of Leeds City Holdings, the parent company of LUFC.

"Due to a confidentially provision, no further details can be given about the commercial terms of the transaction."

There was no comment from the club on Thursday morning, although GFH did confirm to Press Association Sport that the correspondence had come from them.

David Haigh, a Leeds fan, who is the deputy chief executive officer and chief operating officer of GFH Capital is thought to be the frontman of the takeover, but was also unavailable for comment.

Haigh did speak on his Twitter account, though, writing: "Good morning everyone. Thank you for all your messages of support. They are very important to us. #LUFC"