Stewart Donald to jet out to Monaco for talks with potential big-money Sunderland investor

Donald revealed this week that he is the majority shareholder at the Black Cats after completing his takeover of the club from Ellis Short.

The businessman will pay Short £40million over two years and said he will look to bring in further international investment as he tries to get the club back into the Premier League.

And Donald claimed that he had already been offered £22million more than he paid for the club – but has no interest in selling.

Instead, he will head to Monaco this weekend for talks with a friend who has expressed an interest in investing with the club.

In an interview with Talksport, Donald said: “The day the deal got announced I got offered £22million more than I paid for it to sell it – and I didn’t even have it.

“I have no interest in that. What I have got when we talk about where we take the football club, there are lots of people in the business world that I know who have expressed an interest.

“One person is a very good friend of mine who I would be interested in. He’s very well connected and as soon as I did the deal he said ‘Stew, can I get involved?’.

“I’m going to pop over this weekend and see him in Monaco. The Grand Prix is on, it’s been pretty hard work so I’m going to have a couple of days off, we’ll sit down and I’ll see if he wants to dot the is and cross the ts.

“I’ve told him about the deal, he’s good in football, he’s good in business and I think I might get him involved.

“That would be a minority stake and he’s the sort of guy you’re talking about where if I can’t do it, can he help me do it? Absolutely yes.”

Former Eastleigh chairman Donald, who made his money in insurance, will be joined on the board by Charlie Methven, a friend and PR expert, who will be a minority shareholder.