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Simon Sadler, the British hedge fund founder who has been charged with insider dealing by Hong Kong authorities, is looking to sell Blackpool Football Club as he fights to clear his name.
The founder of Hong Kong-based Segantii Capital Management and owner of the football club has had preliminary conversations with at least one possible buyer and with the English Football League about a potential sale, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.
Sadler, his former colleague Daniel La Rocca and the hedge fund have all been charged with trading on inside information in relation to retailer Esprit’s securities in 2017. All pleaded not guilty at a court in Hong Kong last month. Segantii has previously said it “intends to defend itself vigorously against the charge”.
Sadler grew up in Blackpool and many local fans saw him as a hero when he bought the football club out of receivership in 2019.
“I don’t want to sound like a messiah, but there is a point where I am doing it for the greater good, to put something back,” he told the Guardian newspaper shortly after he bought the club.
It was subsequently promoted to the second-highest division of English football but was relegated again before the 2023/24 season.
Staff at the club have held early-stage discussions with people linked to Henry Teh, a Singapore-based investor who considered buying the club when it was put up for sale in 2019, one of the people said.
Teh, Sadler and Blackpool Football Club declined to comment.
Since the criminal charge, which was announced in May, Sadler has started shutting down operations and handing back investor cash at Segantii. At the time, Segantii said it had decided it was “in the best interests of our investors to return their capital in an orderly manner”.
Sadler founded the fund in Hong Kong in 2007 and it had $6bn under management at its peak.
The insider dealing trial is due to start in May 2026. If Sadler is convicted, he could face up to seven years in prison.
Under English Football League rules, directors of a football club can be disqualified if they have unspent convictions “in respect of any offence involving any act which could reasonably be considered” to be “dishonest”, or if they have any unspent conviction for any offence that resulted in a prison sentence of 12 months or more.
Sadler bought Blackpool Football Club for £8.2mn in 2019, according to court filings. Its most recent accounts, for the year to June 2023, say it has received £25.5mn in “cumulative total funds” from Sadler.
Sadler made £3.6mn in interest-free loans to the club that year, and £3.3mn the year before, the accounts say.
