latest is that there are two bids on the table for £300M but Hicks and the other guy value the club at £600M - reminds me of Mike Ashley before Newcastle were relegated as he touted them around the Middle East for double their value.
RBS have secured loans of £230M(?) which are overdue. Given Liverpools league position wouldn't you be a tad nervous and start appointing someone to sort it all out?
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First, Gilet and Hicks will do everything in their power to stop this sale going through. Why? Because at £300m, with £230m going to pay off long-term debt, they would stand to lose something like £140m of their own investment. Not nice.
Second, if the club is sold (in effect from under their feet), who is to say that NESV will not saddle the club with the debt it needed to raise to buy it in the first place? Liverpool may even end up with a bigger debt to service under NESV than they had with Gilet and Hicks, who would, in turn, lose the lot.
Third, if the sale does not go through before the end of next week, RBS will be in a position to take control of the club, place it in adminstration and sell it to the highest bid, to cover their secured £230m. So NESV need to ask the question - do they pay £300m now, or £230m next week, with the loss of ten points? What changes between now and then? Only one fixture. Against Llverpool's relegation rivals, Everton. With Wolves playing West Ham on Saturday, a bad result in the Merseyside derby could see Liverpool rooted to the bottom of the Premier League. Again Gilet and Hicks would lose everything.
Liverpool fans have wished to see the backs of their American owners. This just goes to reinforce the saying, be careful what you wish for.
So basically which ever option they go with they're going to lose money? Good investment lads!
from the bbc:
However, the Premier League says it is happy with the business plan of the NESV and has confirmed that the club would not suffer a nine-point penalty if it were to enter administration as the club would remain fully solvent.
"The aim of the regulations is primarily to capture clubs who have gone into insolvency. This is manifestly not the case with Liverpool Football Club," a Premier League source told PA Sport.
"For example, last year West Ham's Icelandic owners went into administration but that did not lead to any Premier League action as the club itself was solvent."
I think Hicks & Gillett invested £140m, so a stunning return on their investment in the Liverpool "franchise". The loans were due to be re-paid by the 15th October - so unless the two Yanks can re-finance or find a better deal they are out. Failure to re-pay the loans by then would mean a £60m fine. According to reports they are taking legal action to stop the sale going through, but they really should quit while they're behind. They are obviously out of their depth and pretty much despised by Liverpool's fan base, I can't see what they are trying to gain by hanging on in there, other than a bit of pride.
For the rest of us we should all hate HICKS, because he paid George W Bush $250 million for the Texas Rangers baseball team and thus funded the Bush presidential campaign and so by association helped start the wars Iraq and Afghanistan.
I can see the legals on this running and running. 'Specially if they can get it inot the states.
As for this administration stuff... West Ham story is a red herring as the club themselves never went into admin... don't know the ins and outs but RBS may have to put Liverpool into admin to get their money (same as the guys who hit Palace/Jordan)... can't see how they could avoid 9 point penalty ! If you or I couldn't raise £230m by next Friday then that sounds like insolvent to me?!
I realise we could end up in similar strife at some point and none of this helps us in getting investment, but can't stop enjoying this for now.
it will all come down to the fine print and its interpretation. And of course the judge, for the scousers sake lets hope he's not a Man U fan, if the case is heard in the North West then they are probably ok.
I was working at Lloyds group when the Selhurst deal went through and was disgusted to see all this rubbish on their site about how they didn't want to take the club out - they probably wrote off 75%+ of what was owed (and Aviva took a similar hit on St Mary's)
UEFA, Platini and the FA need to move a bit faster on these rules about only spending what you bring in and we might see a few less multi-millionaire players and agents, not to mention quik fix managers
For all the LFC/RBS/Red Sox info and a great quote
Will the premier league really want to risk losing one of it's biggest assets to the championship? They might not be the force they once were but are massively supported worldwide and this brings in huge revenue. I just cannot see them giving them a deduction.
No doubt the Premier League will find a loophole in its laws to enable one of the big 4 to wriggle out of a points deduction.
Also, the bank knows administration will trigger a points penalty, and that a penalty will increase the chances of the club being relegated, and therefore slash the club's value, decreasing the chance of RBS getting its money back via a post-administration sale.
Liverpool will wriggle out of it like West Ham did. It is clubs like us (the only Premiership club to my knowledge to be punished for a frivolous appeal) and Swindon who feel the full weight of footballing law.
Off the top my head both Derby and Manchester United (Ferdinand) have also been done with the frivoulous appeal in the Premiership.
Hardly a surprise.
Sort of...the judge has allowed them the right to appeal but said that an appeal would be "inappropriate", which presumably means something along the lines of go ahead and waste more money if you want to, but the decision won't change.
It looks as though NESV will be the new owners - their bid was accepted unconditionally last week and can't now be overturned. If they pull out then bid negotiations can start again, but it appears as though H&G have proved again that the best way to make a small fortune is to start with a large one.