King Power tests market after Leicester collapse

King Power are exploring a potential sale of Leicester City, 10 years after the club’s Premier League title and following a decline that has taken them into the third tier of English football.The Thai travel retail group have appointed Citigroup to sound out prospective buyers. The process remains at an exploratory stage, with no agreement reached and no confirmed valuation.An unidentified Middle Eastern group is understood to have shown interest, while the club’s investment materials have been presented to several potential investors.Leicester and King Power have not commented publicly on the process. Any transaction would bring one of English football’s most significant modern ownership periods towards a close.King Power founder Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha acquired Leicester in 2010, when they were competing in the Championship.The club secured promotion to the Premier League in 2014 and won the title two years later, overcoming odds of 5,000-1 in one of the competition’s biggest commercial and sporting shocks.That success transformed Leicester’s international profile and led to a UEFA Champions League quarter-final appearance in 2017.Control passed to Vichai’s son, Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha, after his father died in a helicopter crash outside the club’s stadium in October 2018.Leicester subsequently finished fifth in the Premier League in consecutive seasons and won the FA Cup for the first time in 2021.Their position deteriorated after the pandemic, with relegation from the Premier League in 2023 followed by an immediate return under Enzo Maresca.That promotion proved temporary. Leicester were relegated again in 2025 and then dropped into League One after finishing second from bottom of the Championship in 2025-26.A six-point deduction imposed in February contributed to the latest relegation. The sanction followed breaches of financial rules after Leicester recorded losses of £201.9m across the three years from 2022 until 2024.Accounts for the 2024-25 season showed a pre-tax loss of £71.1m despite the club competing in the Premier League and benefiting from top-flight broadcast distributions.King Power converted £124m of shareholder loans into equity last year, reducing the club’s debt to their owners but underlining the level of financial support required.The group have also funded a major training complex at Seagrave. Plans to increase the King Power Stadium’s capacity from about 32,000 to 40,000 have been placed on hold.King Power’s core duty-free retail business has faced its own pressures following reduced international travel to Thailand, particularly from China, and the renegotiation of airport concession agreements.Leicester could still appeal to investors seeking an established English club at a lower entry price than a Premier League acquisition.Their stadium, training infrastructure, academy, supporter base and recent top-flight history provide a platform for recovery, but a buyer would inherit the costs and uncertainty associated with securing two promotions.Citigroup’s outreach will establish whether investors believe Leicester’s remaining commercial strength outweighs the financial and sporting risks created by their fall into League One.