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Abu Dhabi billionaire Sulaiman al-Fahim and a group of other investors are aiming to complete a deal to buy Premier League club Portsmouth by the summer having begun due diligence, Fahim said on Wednesday.

Fahim, a board member of the Abu Dhabi United Group for Development and Investment that bought Manchester City last year, told Reuters he would be travelling to England on Wednesday to conclude negotiations.

"We are doing the due diligence now and expect to complete the deal before the summer," he said. The new owners could be in place by the start of the new season on August 15.

Portsmouth, who won the FA Cup in 2008, finished this season in 14th place, four places above the relegation zone.

The south-coast club's French-born owner Alexandre Gaydamak has been looking for a buyer since December.

The deal was being done with specialist international private equity and asset management firm Falcon Group, who will also invest, said Fahim, who would become the club's chairman.

Fahim declined to give a value for the deal, but said the price had been attractive because Portsmouth did not have huge debts like other clubs.

Portsmouth made losses of 16.66 million pounds for the 2007-08 financial year despite winning the FA Cup for the first time in 69 years -- their first major trophy since they won the league title in 1950.

But the club said when announcing its results in April that their deficit was nearly 7.0 million less than the previous year and was optimistic the loss will be reduced again next year.

NEW STADIUM

Immediate plans for a new stadium had already been shelved and instead Portsmouth previously said it would redevelop Fratton Park, their home since they were formed in 1898, by the 2011-12 season when it should hold an extra 10,000 fans.

Regarding stadium development Fahim added: "We plan to enlarge the stadium from 20,000 to 30,000 capacity and in the next phase we want to build a new stadium with 40,000 capacity."

The prospective owner has said he would focus on stabilising the club's current squad. Fahim will look to strengthen the team with talented English players and hoped to bring one of the UAEs' best players to the south coast.

Fahim added that the group had drawn up a shortlist of managers and would be looking at them soon. He declined to identify prospective candidates but said Sven-Goran Eriksson, sacked as Mexico coach in April, was not on the list.

The current Portsmouth manager Paul Hart took over from Tony Adams midway though last season.

Soccer, viewed as a high profile and glamorous industry, is being targeted for investment by Gulf Arab firms as Western investors tighten their belts in the global economic slowdown.

England's top flight, underwritten by domestic and global TV deals worth over a billion pounds, has become Europe's dominant league in the last decade with many of the world's best players earning huge salaries at the major clubs.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is the world's third-largest oil exporter and the capital Abu Dhabi controls 90 percent of the country's oil reserves.

Flush with petrodollars from soaring oil prices, Abu Dhabi has been investing abroad to diversify its economy.

(Source: Reuters)