Dipper Takeover? [Merged]

[fbloke]

And Orville speaks again!

Renowned deal-broker Keith Harris claims an overseas buyer is considering making an offer of between £400million and £500million for Liverpool.
The former Football League chairman, who has had a hand in the sales of Aston Villa, West Ham and Manchester City in the past, revealed due diligence has already been done. Harris also said the party he was representing was not one mentioned publicly before.
"The overseas buyer we represent has completed due diligence. A huge amount of work has been done," he said. "It is none of the groups mentioned in the press. The ball is now in our client's court to make an offer."
He added: "I do not think the deal will be done before the transfer window closes this month but the next pressure point is October when some of the RBS loan of £237million has to be repaid. It may happen then. But in the present climate these things are impossible to predict."
Last week Hong Kong-based businessman Kenny Huang - whose interest was allied to the Chinese government - pulled out of the bidding process, while Syrian-Canadian Yahya Kirdi's much-publicised interest has been treated with scepticism.
Harris said history has taught him that those who went public before an agreement had been reached rarely succeeded.
"The Chinese government involvement was always a bit far-fetched," he told the London Evening Standard. "In any takeover situation, when people resort to announcing it to the media, you have to question the seriousness of the offer.
"If the name of the prospective buyer comes out before the deal is done then probably it is never going to be done. Look at when Chelsea was sold in 2003. My firm was advising the club and we only knew of Roman Abramovich on the Thursday before the deal was completed the following Tuesday."
Harris worked on a bid for Liverpool two years ago for Kuwaiti Nasser Al Khorafi, whom it is claimed agreed a deal for £300million up front and another £100million based on financial performance only to pull out at the last minute.

 

[bluemonkey71]

And Orville speaks again!

Renowned deal-broker Keith Harris claims an overseas buyer is considering making an offer of between £400million and £500million for Liverpool.
The former Football League chairman, who has had a hand in the sales of Aston Villa, West Ham and Manchester City in the past, revealed due diligence has already been done. Harris also said the party he was representing was not one mentioned publicly before.
"The overseas buyer we represent has completed due diligence. A huge amount of work has been done," he said. "It is none of the groups mentioned in the press. The ball is now in our client's court to make an offer."
He added: "I do not thinkthe deal will be done before the transfer window closes this month but the next pressure point is October when some of the RBS loan of £237million has to be repaid. It may happen then. But in the present climate these things are impossible to predict."
Last week Hong Kong-based businessman Kenny Huang - whose interest was allied to the Chinese government - pulled out of the bidding process, while Syrian-Canadian Yahya Kirdi's much-publicised interest has been treated with scepticism.
Harris said history has taught him that those who went public before an agreement had been reached rarely succeeded.
"The Chinese government involvement was always a bit far-fetched," he told the London Evening Standard. "In any takeover situation, when people resort to announcing it to the media, you have to question the seriousness of the offer.
"If the name of the prospective buyer comes out before the deal is done then probably it is never going to be done. Look at when Chelsea was sold in 2003. My firm was advising the club and we only knew of Roman Abramovich on the Thursday before the deal was completed the following Tuesday."
Harris worked on a bid for Liverpool two years ago for Kuwaiti Nasser Al Khorafi, whom it is claimed agreed a deal for £300million up front and another £100million based on financial performance only to pull out at the last minute.

I could have come up with better speculation than that

 

[fbloke]

And here is the news I was talking abouta while back -

<a class="postlink" href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/l/liverpool/9009381.stm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 009381.stm</a>

Its funny how these things happen to Liverpool ;-)

-- Fri Sep 17, 2010 3:08 pm --

Any attempt by Liverpool's co-owner Tom Hicks to gain sole control of the club will have no support from the majority of Liverpool's board but could succeed, BBC Sport understands.
Texan billionaire Hicks met Liverpool chairman Martin Broughton on Wednesday, informing him he was considering raising money to refinance the club's £237.4m debt with Royal Bank of Scotland before a deadline set for early October.
The talks were described by a senior club source as "blunt but constructive" but the prospect of Hicks remaining in control of the Premier League club will horrify many Liverpool fans desperate for a change of ownership.
Co-owner George Gillett is reported to be struggling to pay back a £75m loan secured against his 50% stake in the club in 2008 and Hicks is considering buying his partner out, although Gillett insists he is not on the brink of defaulting.
Hicks and Gillett bought the Reds in February 2007 in a deal that valued the club at £218.9m.
But the American duo have endured a difficult time at Anfield, with supporters regularly voicing their dissatisfaction at the level of debt taken on by the club after their buyout.
Broughton, who was appointed in April at the request of RBS as a condition for the bank extending its loan to the Americans for a further six months, has previously said he wants to find a new owner willing to wipe out the club's debt and build a new stadium.

Kenny Huang ended his interest in buying Liverpool at the end of August
Along with managing director Christian Purslow and commercial director Ian Ayre, Broughton sits on the club's five-man board alongside Hicks and Gillett.
The three Englishmen will oppose Hicks' plan if he manages to raise the funds required.
The Americans failed to generate the necessary money in June because the proposed refinancing was with RBS and would lead to the club being saddled with more debt and interest repayments.
However, the board privately acknowledge that this time Hicks could succeed if he refinances with a different bank and are seeking legal advice on their power to block any attempt he may make.
"Technically, if he pays off RBS 100% the bank can't really refuse to receive the money so it can be removed from the scene," the source told BBC Sport.
"That would make the legal position of whether such a plan can be vetoed very complicated and difficult. It would have no support from three members of the board.
"The board's directors are obliged to do what's best for both the shareholders (Hicks and Gillett) and also the business (Kop Holdings) but these two objectives could be in conflict, so legal advice is being sought as to what's possible."
Hicks has not approached RBS yet to discuss his plan but the source admitted the prospect was "possible" and "could not be ruled out".
James McKenna, spokesman for Spirit of Shankly, the Liverpool Supporters' Union, predicts an angry response from fans to any attempt by Hicks to keep hold of the club.
"This is the latest in an on-going soap opera but we don't want either Hicks or Gillett involved in the club and these plans will be met with the fiercest of protests," he said. "These reports are a worry."
Hicks and Gillett put the debt-ridden club up for sale in April, valuing it at £600m but no-one has come close to meeting that figure.
Hong Kong businessman Kenny Huang was interested but withdrew from negotiations to buy the club at the end of August.
Hicks and Gillett face losing the club to RBS, which must decide whether to call in the loan and take control of the club, agree to another extension, or force a sale to the highest bidder.

-- Fri Sep 17, 2010 7:13 pm --

REVEALED: The bank that Tom Hicks wants to fund his Liverpool bid (and why he’ll probably fail)
By Nick Harris
17 September 2010
Tom Hicks, the co-owner of Liverpool who is desperate to cling to ownership and control of the club despite being unwilling or unable to invest major resources in its future, is hoping he will find funding to refinance the club’s debt from the global investment firm Blackstone, and specifically its GSO Capital Partners subsidiary, sportingintelligence has learned.
GSO’s own section of the Blackstone website describes it as “one of the largest credit-oriented alternative asset managers in the world and a major participant in leveraged finance.” Hicks has worked with Blackstone before.
Hicks and his co-owner George Gillett are widely perceived to be in their dying days in control of a club they took over in February 2007 with promises of a new stadium and a bright future for the club; neither have yet materialised. It was obvious within a year that something was badly wrong. Instead, the club owes RBS Bank at least £237m (it could be as high as £280m now) and that debt is due to be repaid or refinanced in October.
Gillett is almost certainly finished at the club and has reportedly accepted as much; he is struggling to repay money he borrowed in American to part-fund his Liverpool venture.
But Hicks still believes he can find cash to refinance the RBS debt, and he hopes it will come from GSO, a scenario that will horrify supporters who want the Americans out.
From the fans’ perspective, a ray of optimism comes from the fact that Hicks would have to meet conditions to borrow from GSO that he seems unlikely to be able to meet, relating to conditions set by Liverpool’s board.
If he wants to borrow from any source to refund the debt, he will, as a matter of course, need to give some security against the new borrowed money. Sportingintelligence understands that if he attempted to offer the asset of Liverpool (the club) as security, then the board – and specifically Martin Broughton, Christian Purslow and Ian Ayre – can and will vote against such a proposal.
In other words, Hicks won’t be able to borrow any money using Liverpool as security.
But if he were able to produce another asset as security, he may indeed be able to borrow the cash and attempt a refinancing. There is no obvious other asset in his troubled portfolio of interests, although as with all things related to the saga of Liverpool’s ownership, there are bound to be more twists yet.
The board has already prevented one attempt by Gillett this summer to refinance using Liverpool as an asset.
Broughton and Purlsow insist they are committed to find the right buyer for the club, someone with money to reduce the debt and also start work on the proposed new stadium. The search for such an owner is ongoing.

<br /><br />-- Mon Sep 20, 2010 4:51 pm --<br /><br />And then again maybe not?

The future ownership of Liverpool appears as uncertain as ever after the investment group Blackstone ruled out financially backing the club's current co-owner Tom Hicks.

Blackstone's GSO Capital Partners had held talks with the Texan over providing the cash to allow him to pay off the £237million owed to the Royal Bank of Scotland - and that figure is likely to be significantly higher due to penalty fees - before the mid-October deadline and remain in control of the club.

According to a Sunday newspaper, Hicks was close to agreeing a £280million two-year deal which would see him buy out co-owner George Gillett and remain in charge of the club.

It is understood that Blackstone opened talks with Hicks some weeks ago but have now decided against any deal.

The latest development means it is back to square one for Hicks, who is taking the active role in seeking out refinancing the debt they took out to buy the club for £219million in 2007.

The search for a new owner, which was meant to have gone into overdrive when Martin Broughton was appointed as an independent chairman in April, also appears to have stalled.

The main problem holding up a sale continues to be the value that Hicks and Gillett have put on the club.

Hicks in particular is wanting to maximise any profit and had put a price tag of £600million for a sale despite being advised that they are unlikely to get anything above £400million.