Kenneth Huang group reveals more detail on Liverpool takeover bid
Kenneth Huang’s bid for Liverpool will be backed by a consortium of investors including potentially the investment arm of the Chinese government, according to a broker acting for Huang.
In an interview with the Associated Press agency Marc Ganis, whose Chicago-based company Sportscorp Ltd. has helped compile the Huang bid, offered more detail on the structure and companies behind the bid.
He said that a number of investors, possibly including the China Investment Corporation, would take a stake in the club with none owning more than 20 per cent.
Ganis said that the group first contacted Liverpool chairman on Monday, a day after the first reports of Huang’s involvement appeared in the UK media.
He also said the group intended not to enrich owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett, a statement sure to win favour among supporters.
"We haven't submitted a formal proposal but we submitted the broad parameters of what a proposal would look like to see if it would be welcomed, and it was," Ganis said in a telephone interview with AP arranged through Huang’s PR advisors Hill & Knowlton Hong Kong.
"What is not one of our goals in the enrichment of the existing owners," Ganis said. "If we submit a proposal and it is accepted, it would be focused on the future and not the past."
Ganis would not reveal what price Huang’s group was willing to pay but said it would not get anywhere near Hicks’ £800m valuation. "If anybody wants to [pay that], good luck. We know what we would be prepared to do. If somebody else wants to look at it in a different way, it's their money. That would be their business, not ours."
Ganis said that if a deal proceeds the club would be owned by a new company ultimately owned by QSL Sports Limited, the company headed by Huang and Guang Yang, executive vice president of Franklin Templeton Investments and chief investment officer of the China Life/Franklin Templeton Fund.
Ganis said that Huang and Yang would be involved in the day-to-day management of the club, but that there would be other “passive investors”, none of whom would own more than 20 per cent.
Ganis said that China Investment Corporation, the country's sovereign wealth fund, might be part of an investment vehicle that would have a passive ownership interest in the club. The precise nature of CIC’s involvement has been a matter of speculation since it was revealed on Thursday.
By Paul Kelso, Chief Sports Reporter