Interesting news...
Liverpool Football Club's financial turmoil took another turn for the worse after it was reported that the asset management and financial services company Blackstone Group had backed out of a deal with Liverpool co-owner Tom Hicks.
It was widely reported earlier in the week that GSO Capital Partners, a subsidiary of Blackstone, was close to finalising a two-year US$437 million loan with the Liverpool owner, which would've allowed Hicks to repay US$370 million owed to the Royal Bank of Scotland, purchase Gillett's shares of the club and delay the sale of Liverpool until 2012.
However, the Financial Times has since revealed that Blackstone chairman and chief executive officer, Stephen A. Schwarzman, has decided to back away from any deal.Despite high profile approaches from a number of potential investors, Liverpool Football Club remains for sale and has been since April.
The two Liverpool owners now have until 6th October to find a buyer, service US$370 million worth of debt or risk RBS assuming ownership of the English Premier League club.
Liverpool co-owner Hicks fails to secure loan
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andyfuller
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- Joined: Wed Mar 25, 2009 12:23 pm
Robert Peston from the BBC did a feature about Liverpool today and how RBS are likely to soon own them:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters ... liver.html
Unfortunately one of the funny comments was removed, it went along the lines of:
RBS is owned by the Government, so if RBS own LFC they are effectively owned by the Government which means as ever Liverpool goes onto State Benefits
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters ... liver.html
Unfortunately one of the funny comments was removed, it went along the lines of:
RBS is owned by the Government, so if RBS own LFC they are effectively owned by the Government which means as ever Liverpool goes onto State Benefits
The story rumbles on: -
Liverpool's disenchanted fans took their dissatisfaction with Tom Hicks and George Gillett across the Atlantic on Thursday, sending hundreds of emails to leading US media executives, news outlets and financial institutions pleading for increased coverage of the club's current state.
Appealing to the memory of the Beatles, the special relationship between the UK and the USA and the thought of a British businessman destroying the New York Yankees or Washington Redskins, Liverpool's fans called for the situation to be reported in an effort to persuade Wall Street that allowing Hicks and Gillett to refinance their ownership of the Anfield club would be a mistake.
The campaign came at the end of seven days of confusion at Anfield. Last Friday, widespread reports emerged that Hicks was seeking to refinance and continue his ownership of Liverpool. The reports came less than four months after Hicks told journalists of his desire to quit the sports industry for good. "It's never been my primary business," he told Dallas Morning News reporters Gary Jacobson and Brendan Case on May 26. "And it's a business I no longer want to pay the price to be in." Weeks later, at the start of August, Hicks completed the sale of the Texas Rangers MLB franchise to a group led by Pittsburgh attorney Chuck Greenberg and Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan.
Liverpool's owners put the club on the market before the start of the summer but, according to managing director Christian Purslow, no firm bids have been made. Perhaps Hicks' stance this week has been a bargaining tool. He certainly has no intention of selling Liverpool on the cheap, making clear in the same interview with Jacobson and Case that he intended to make back "a couple of hundred" million dollars that he had lost on the Texas Rangers with the Anfield club. Nor will he want the club to be taken out of his hands by RBS, as has been mooted.
From a business perspective, there is little doubt that Hicks and Gillett should be able to command a higher asking price than they paid. Their ownership may have been distressing for fans, but it has seen a rapid turnaround of the club's commercial fortunes. Two examples stand out.
Firstly, Liverpool's previous shirt sponsorship, with Carlsberg, was worth a few million pounds per season - less, for example, than Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa will collect from Autonomy and FxPro this year. The new deal with Standard Chartered, negotiated by a commercial team headed by Liverpool's commercial director, Ian Ayre, matches Manchester United's £20 million per season as a British record.
Secondly, Hicks and Gillett arrived in early 2007. Later that year, the Premier League began a new cycle of broadcast rights for 2007-10, in which Liverpool's income from television money rose by 65 per cent. Another cycle, 2010-13, is now underway, and the club's broadcast income has risen again. The television money may be none of Hicks' or Gillett's doing, but there is no arguing with the fact that, off the pitch, Liverpool are a far more attractive commercial proposition than in the winter of 2006.
Unfortunately, the club's decline on the field has been far more obvious. For many years, Liverpool's success on the pitch masked a poorly run business; now poor first team performances obscure improved commercial fortunes. And even the business side of things is unsatisfactory to many fans, coming as it does with heavy debt loaded onto the club.
Put simply, though, the satisfaction of fans with an owner comes down to success on the pitch - hence the ease with which the Glazers continue to ride out discontent at Old Trafford. You can secure as many sponsorships as you want, but losing to Northampton will test the patience of the fans of any Premier League club. Liverpool fans' patience has long since run out.
The full text of the Liverpool fans' email to US media outlets:
Dear USA Media Executive/Outlet
*We gave you THE BEATLES and this is how you repay us?*
What happened to the *’Special Relationship’ *between the US and the UK?
Are you aware of how *Tom Hicks* is driving our beloved *Liverpool Football Club *into the ground?
How would you like it if a British “businessman” came over to the USA and destroyed the New York Yankees. Or the LA Lakers. Or the Washington Redskins?
Well, we are living Wayne Huizenga and the Florida Marlins all over again!
Please Google *”Tom Hicks + Liverpool”* to see what an embarrassment he is to the USA.
We would be grateful if you could help us by reporting our story in order that we might persuade Wall Street NOT to lend him the money he is currently trying to raise, to drive our football team into even more debt and despair.
Sorry about the mass email approach but we have tried everything else, and we feel like we are at the end of the road.
Thanks in anticipation
Fans of Liverpool Football Club.
Liverpool's disenchanted fans took their dissatisfaction with Tom Hicks and George Gillett across the Atlantic on Thursday, sending hundreds of emails to leading US media executives, news outlets and financial institutions pleading for increased coverage of the club's current state.
Appealing to the memory of the Beatles, the special relationship between the UK and the USA and the thought of a British businessman destroying the New York Yankees or Washington Redskins, Liverpool's fans called for the situation to be reported in an effort to persuade Wall Street that allowing Hicks and Gillett to refinance their ownership of the Anfield club would be a mistake.
The campaign came at the end of seven days of confusion at Anfield. Last Friday, widespread reports emerged that Hicks was seeking to refinance and continue his ownership of Liverpool. The reports came less than four months after Hicks told journalists of his desire to quit the sports industry for good. "It's never been my primary business," he told Dallas Morning News reporters Gary Jacobson and Brendan Case on May 26. "And it's a business I no longer want to pay the price to be in." Weeks later, at the start of August, Hicks completed the sale of the Texas Rangers MLB franchise to a group led by Pittsburgh attorney Chuck Greenberg and Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan.
Liverpool's owners put the club on the market before the start of the summer but, according to managing director Christian Purslow, no firm bids have been made. Perhaps Hicks' stance this week has been a bargaining tool. He certainly has no intention of selling Liverpool on the cheap, making clear in the same interview with Jacobson and Case that he intended to make back "a couple of hundred" million dollars that he had lost on the Texas Rangers with the Anfield club. Nor will he want the club to be taken out of his hands by RBS, as has been mooted.
From a business perspective, there is little doubt that Hicks and Gillett should be able to command a higher asking price than they paid. Their ownership may have been distressing for fans, but it has seen a rapid turnaround of the club's commercial fortunes. Two examples stand out.
Firstly, Liverpool's previous shirt sponsorship, with Carlsberg, was worth a few million pounds per season - less, for example, than Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa will collect from Autonomy and FxPro this year. The new deal with Standard Chartered, negotiated by a commercial team headed by Liverpool's commercial director, Ian Ayre, matches Manchester United's £20 million per season as a British record.
Secondly, Hicks and Gillett arrived in early 2007. Later that year, the Premier League began a new cycle of broadcast rights for 2007-10, in which Liverpool's income from television money rose by 65 per cent. Another cycle, 2010-13, is now underway, and the club's broadcast income has risen again. The television money may be none of Hicks' or Gillett's doing, but there is no arguing with the fact that, off the pitch, Liverpool are a far more attractive commercial proposition than in the winter of 2006.
Unfortunately, the club's decline on the field has been far more obvious. For many years, Liverpool's success on the pitch masked a poorly run business; now poor first team performances obscure improved commercial fortunes. And even the business side of things is unsatisfactory to many fans, coming as it does with heavy debt loaded onto the club.
Put simply, though, the satisfaction of fans with an owner comes down to success on the pitch - hence the ease with which the Glazers continue to ride out discontent at Old Trafford. You can secure as many sponsorships as you want, but losing to Northampton will test the patience of the fans of any Premier League club. Liverpool fans' patience has long since run out.
The full text of the Liverpool fans' email to US media outlets:
Dear USA Media Executive/Outlet
*We gave you THE BEATLES and this is how you repay us?*
What happened to the *’Special Relationship’ *between the US and the UK?
Are you aware of how *Tom Hicks* is driving our beloved *Liverpool Football Club *into the ground?
How would you like it if a British “businessman” came over to the USA and destroyed the New York Yankees. Or the LA Lakers. Or the Washington Redskins?
Well, we are living Wayne Huizenga and the Florida Marlins all over again!
Please Google *”Tom Hicks + Liverpool”* to see what an embarrassment he is to the USA.
We would be grateful if you could help us by reporting our story in order that we might persuade Wall Street NOT to lend him the money he is currently trying to raise, to drive our football team into even more debt and despair.
Sorry about the mass email approach but we have tried everything else, and we feel like we are at the end of the road.
Thanks in anticipation
Fans of Liverpool Football Club.