Troubled Birmingham City’s parent group, Birmingham International Holdings, aims to raise £6 million though a complex financial transaction with a British Virgin Islands-based firm.

The club owners, whose shares remain suspended on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, announced a loan deal with Inkatha Group, an investment company based in the tax haven.

The deal, announced to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, gives Inkatha the option of taking up a 14 per cent stake in the company after two years.

Stockbroker Peter Knowles said: “In layman’s terms, Birmingham International Holdings is issuing a loan for two years which will pay a return of five per cent.

"This is a convertible loan, which gives you the right to convert into ordinary shares. At the end of the loan, the holders of the stock will have the option to take the money back or convert.

“If they convert to shares, they would have around 14 per cent of Birmingham International Holdings, given the price when shares were suspended on June 30.”

Financial experts say the loan is a fairly standard way of raising money, although increasing Blues owners’ overall debt.

The latest announcement by BIHL follows the arrest earlier this summer of Birmingham City’s biggest shareholder, Carson Yeung, when he was charged with five counts of money laundering totalling £59 million and covering a six-year period from 2001.

In a subsequent statement issued last month, BIHL said: “The company wishes to announce that, as far as it is aware having taken steps to ascertain the same, the alleged offences against Mr Yeung do not relate to the company nor Birmingham City Football Club.”