Sabres owner hopes to cut deal for Bills

Terry Pegula's bottom line has received a big bump in his bid to purchase the Buffalo Bills.

The owner of the National Hockey League's Buffalo Sabres closed a $1.75 billion deal to sell the oil rights on about 34,400 hectares of land in Ohio and West Virginia to American Energy on Tuesday.

The sale comes at a time when Pegula and his wife, Kim, are considered the front-runners to buy the Bills, who are for sale after owner Ralph Wilson died in March.

The Pegulas and New York real estate mogul Donald Trump have been chosen to advance to the next round of the sale process by Morgan Stanley, the banking firm overseeing the sale of the NFL club.

Trump said he made an initial non-binding bid of $1 billion.

Before the sale on Tuesday, Pegula's net worth was last estimated by Forbes to be $3.3 billion. He made his fortune after selling off some of his company's assets for $4.7 billion to Royal Dutch Shell in 2010.

Pegula has the ability to increase his wealth even more. In announcing the sale to American Energy, Pegula said he still retains what he called "significant oil and gas assets" in Colorado, Wyoming, New York, West Virginia and his native Pennsylvania.

The Bills were last valued at $870 million, but are expected to sell for at least $1 billion, partly because NFL teams rarely go on the market.

A Toronto-based group fronted by rocker Jon Bon Jovi has also expressed interest in buying the Bills but it is not clear whether the Bon Jovi group was selected to advance in the sale process.

The next step is for approved groups to meet with Morgan Stanley and members of the Wilson estate to obtain the franchise's financial information.

Once that is done, in the coming weeks, groups will then be asked to submit formal bids.

The bidding process is unsealed, meaning Wilson's estate will have the ability to ask groups to increase their bids.

(China Daily 08/07/2014 page24)