The Chinese businessman eyeing up Anfield is not a tycoon but an ambitious deal-maker with a passion for sport
Kenneth Huang grabbed attention last year when he led moves to buy a 15% stake in the Cleveland Cavaliers NBA team. Photograph: Ng Han Guan/AP
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Few in Britain have heard of Kenneth Huang, the Chinese businessman now in talks to take control of Liverpool. But then, few in China or the United States knew of the sports entrepreneur before he launched an ambitious $70m bid to buy a stake in a National Basketball Association team 15 months ago.
Born Huang Jianhua in southern Guangdong province in 1964, he is said to have been an outstanding badminton player in his youth. But it is by combining his love of sport and contacts in China with American business experience – he was the first Chinese graduate to work at the New York Stock Exchange – that he has made headlines.
He graduated from his hometown's Zhongshan University before moving overseas to study at Columbia University and then complete a masters degree at St John's in New York. He reportedly speaks Japanese as well as Mandarin, Cantonese and English.
Unlike previous high-profile foreign bidders for British teams, he is not a tycoon but a deal-maker who has built his career on bringing people and organisations together – specifically, American and Chinese businesses.
His first notable forays into the sports world came when he cut deals to market the Houston Rockets – given the vast appetite for basketball among young people in China where there are said to be up to 300m fans it was an obvious match – and baseball's New York Yankees to Chinese businesses.
But he grabbed attention when he led a Chinese investment group's move to buy a 15% stake in the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers in spring last year. Months later, he underlined his domestic ambitions with a preliminary deal to take over the Jilin Northeast Tigers, part of the Chinese Basketball Association.
His Hong Kong-based QSL company also announced a 15-year deal to help develop a youth baseball team in China, investing several million dollars to raise the profile of a sport largely unknown in the country.
"It seems like he is trying to piece together a one-man-created sports empire: baseball, basketball, football; the US, England and China," said Maggie Rauch, editor of the China Sports Today blog. "The industry perception is that they are keeping an eye on this guy and seeing what he is up to. So far he has maybe done more talking than doing as far as building anything here in sports goes."
Huang is also managing director of Rocket Capital – the investment platform he launched with Leslie Alexander, owner of the Houston Rockets – which focuses on emerging markets and particularly China. So far they have invested in companies ranging from the China Railway Group to carmakers Brilliance Auto, the Xinjiang Xinxin Mining Industry Company and the Longrun Tea Group.
Unsurprisingly, he appears as well-connected in the world of Chinese business and government as he is in sporting circles.
A biographical note on the website of Aspen Infrastructure – where he is a director – describes him as "one of the most accomplished business executives partnering with some of the largest state-owned enterprises in China".
Despite his ambition he has kept a low profile, giving few interviews or press conferences. An employee at QSL Limited said today that no one was available to speak to reporters.
