Acquisition of CBA's Shanxi Zhongyu still going on

BEIJING - Shanxi Zhongyu of Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) league was reported to have been bought by a Beijing enterprise, but both sources from the club and Beijing Sports Administration said Friday that the procedure was not finished yet.

"Since the procedure is not over, it is inconvenient to talk about this matter," sources from the club said.

The Shanxi team is trying to secure a spot in men's basketball finals of the 12th National Games this year through the playoffs running from April 26-30.

It was reported in many other Chinese media that the club's management intended to sell the team after the 2012-13 CBA season, which many local enterprises showed interest in. However, they were feared away by the high price. A Beijing enterprise finally became the club's new owner for about 200 million yuan (about $32 million).

"Since last season, we have found much difficulty in sustaining ourselves, and the club began to seek for business cooperation then. We have reached many enterprises, while the transference was not finalized now," he said.

According to sources from Beijing Sports Administration, a Beijing enterprise "indeed" bought the Shanxi team, but it didn't have all relevent documents finished, thus making it "too early" to talk about two CBA teams from Beijing and the "Beijing Derby".

As for the new home of Shanxi Zhongyu, he also shrugged off popular opinion that the Shanxi team will find its home in Mastercard Center (Wukesong Arena) or Beijing Workers' Gymnasium.