The 61-year-old cousin of Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour is on the cusp of buying Championship club Derby County.
Derventio Holdings (UK) Limited, which lists Sheikh Khaled bin Zayed Al Nehayan as a “person with significant control”, looks set to sign a deal with current owner Mel Morris.
Morris has been looking for new investment for the past two years.
He is expected to step aside if the deal goes through – but could stay on in a consultancy role.
Contracts could be signed in the next few days, pending approval from the EFL.
The United States-educated and Dubai-based sheikh’s money has snowballed since setting up the Bin Zayed Group in 1988 to deal in everything from construction and energy to technology and financial services.
The Abu Dhabi royal family’s net worth was put at £118bn in 2018.
Sheikh Khaled’s personal fortune is not widely reported.
In comparison, Stoke City’s owners – the Coates family – was put at £7.166bn in the Sunday Times Rich List for 2020. That was 16th in the UK, up £310m and three places from 2019 on the back of the continued success of bet365.
Barnsley owners International Investment Consortium, headed by Chien Lee, have a reported net worth of £6.9bn, although how this is totted up has never been particularly clear.
There’s £5.2bn Dejphon Chansiri at Sheffield Wednesday and Stephen Lansdowne has £1.87bn at Bristol City.
