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File photo of Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin.
(ECNS) -- Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin, chairman of real estate giant Dalian Wanda Group, has denied that he was bidding for the English Football Club Southampton, the Beijing News reported.
The British newspaper Daily Mirror reported that Wanda Group was believed to be lining up a 175-million-pound ($287 million) bid for the club, a move to break into the local market.
The Beijing News cited Wang as saying that Wanda hasn't contacted the club, nor entrusted a third party in a takeover attempt. "It is sheer fiction," the report said.
This is the second denial of a takeover after it was rumored that Wanda was interested in purchasing a stake in Italian Serie A side AS Roma.
Wanda, whose team set a 55-game unbeaten record and won the Chinese top league four times between 1994 and 1998, decided to withdraw from the Chinese league after controversially losing the 1998 CFA Cup semifinal to Liaoning. Two years later, Wanda sold its shares to Dalian Shide, according to Xinhua News Agency.
Wang Jianlin is listed as the second wealthiest person in China, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index released last month. Forbes China, the licensed Chinese-language edition of Forbes magazine, named Wang as its 2013 Businessman of the Year in its latest edition.
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