Navtej Kohli Los Angeles

Frank McCourt has been offered $1.2 billion to sell the Los Angeles Dodgers to a group backed by Chinese government-owned investment banks, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press on Thursday.

According to the reports, Frank McCourt has been offered a whopping $1.2 billion to sell the Los Angeles Dodgers to a group supported by Chinese government owned investment banks.

The bid to purchase the team which is now bankrupt (first reported by the Los Angeles Times), was being managed by Los Angeles Marathon Founder Bill Bruke.

The terms of the bid, as mentioned in the letter sent to McCourt, demand an all cash payment to purchase the team, all property related to the team and the team's media rights. The present offer the almost $800 million more that what he paid for Dodgers in 2004 at more than $430 million.

The letter said funding for the bid would come from "certain state-owned investment institutions of the People's Republic of China"

The bid is valid for 21 days, as per the letter, and they are expecting to close the deal within 90 days, depending on the approvals of the bankruptcy court and Major League Baseball.

The offered bid would break a record for a Major League Baseball team that had been set two years ago when the Ricketts family paid $845 million to purchase the Chicago Cubs from Tribune Co. The involvement of overseas investors in the team's ownership would not be marvelous, with the Seattle Mariners' ownership group including a significant Japanese presence.