Blackpool FC owner’s company to hand back cash

Simon Sadler bought Blackpool FC in June 2019

An investment fund set up by the owner of Blackpool FC, which is at the centre of an insider trading investigation, is handing back all its funds to investors.

Simon Sadler, together with former trader Daniel La Rocca, is facing criminal proceedings alongside Sadler's company Segantii Capital Management Ltd.

Segantii has announced it will return any capital to investors in the global hedge fund, stating it is acting "in their best interests".

Mr Sadler and Mr La Rocca, who are currently on bail, are due back at Eastern Magistrate Court in Hong Kong on 12 June.

'Orderly manner'

The company would not comment on the fund's future but a Segantii spokesman said: “We have always believed at Segantii that it is a great responsibility and privilege to professionally manage money and we have never taken that lightly.

"We have decided, however, that at this time, it is in the best interests of our investors to return their capital in an orderly manner.

"We would like to thank all investors, past and present, for the trust that they have placed in us over the last 16 years.”

Mr Sadler and his associate, Mr La Rocca, made no plea at their last court appearance and were bailed earlier this month, after posting bail of $1m Hong Kong dollars (£100,000) for Mr Sadler and half that amount for Mr La Rocca.

Documents published by Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission said it had commenced the proceedings "for the offence of insider dealing in the shares of a company listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Ltd prior to a block trade in June 2017".

Block trading is a financial transaction in which banks offload blocks of shares privately.

Blackpool FC has previously stated Mr Sadler "will vigorously defend himself against the charge".

The Lancashire businessman took ownership of Blackpool FC in June 2019.

Born and raised in the town, he was educated at a local secondary school, gained a business degree at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), and previously worked for large multi-national companies in London, Moscow and Hong Kong.

He founded Segantii in 2007, naming the business after a pre-Roman tribe once believed to have occupied the present-day Fylde Coast.