Seems Moores personally funded Kuyt Purchase

[Eth]

Robbie is just not up to it mate - its plain to see. I love Robbie but those days are gone. Dirk is a great player who will only improve!

[Airman]

Robbie is just not up to it mate - its plain to see. I love Robbie but those days are gone. Dirk is a great player who will only improve!

I hope you're right. Dirk's work-rate is unquestioned, but so far, he looks well short of the skills needed. His first touch is appalling 80% of the time.

[Shanks65]

Americans Borrow £298m to buy Liverpool

Apologies if already posted. Haven't had time to check the forum.

Americans borrow £298m to buy Liverpool

Club likely to foot annual £21.5m interest payments
Moores family loaned £10m for new signings
David Conn
Wednesday March 14, 2007

Guardian
Thomas O Hicks and George Gillett Jr, the two American businessmen who are close to completing their takeover of Liverpool, have borrowed almost £300m from the Royal Bank of Scotland to finance the deal. The bank has loaned the money at 1.5% above the current standard lending rate, meaning that about £21.5m interest will be payable this year.

The debt is not being taken on by the club in the way the Glazer family loaded Manchester United with £660m borrowings from their 2005 takeover, but professionals close to the deal said it was nevertheless likely that Liverpool would pay the interest, or pay Hicks and Gillett "a big dividend" at the end of the year to enable them to do so.

The terms of the loans are in the offer document sent to all shareholders, revealing that the two men are borrowing £185m to pay for the £174m takeover itself and associated costs, with another £113m available as a "revolving credit facility" to absorb Liverpool's debts and fund the club and preliminary work on the new 60,000-seat stadium. A further £200m will be borrowed to build the stadium but the way that will be done has not been worked out. The initial £298m loans are guaranteed by Hicks and Gillett personally.

The offer document also reveals how stretched Liverpool became financially last year as the chief executive, Rick Parry, searched for someone to take over the club. In August the then chairman David Moores lent the club £10m - £2m personally and £8m from a family trust - to let the manager, Rafael Benítez, have some money to strengthen the squad, which he spent on buying the striker Dirk Kuyt.

Parry said that with a takeover likely the club had not wanted to take on more bank finance. "We were at the limit in terms of our short-term borrowing facilities and were racking up expenditure keeping the stadium on schedule, so it was a fantastic gesture by David to make that money available." Along with the money Hicks and Gillett are paying for his shares, Moores will have his loans repaid in full.

The takeover is certain to go through after it was confirmed last week that over 80% of Liverpool shareholders had accepted the offer of £5,000 a share. Moores, the former 51.5% shareholder, will be paid £89.615m for the 17,923 shares he bought for about £12m.

Robert Tilliss, the New York-based financial adviser to Hicks and Gillett, said the men had been attracted by buying "one of the leading brands in the world's No1 sport". He said they would bring their sports business expertise over from the US, where $20bn (£10.3bn) has been spent in recent years upgrading stadiums whose ticket prices make those in the Premiership seem like a snip. Tilliss said the popularity of English football in Asia had also been a factor. "All clubs in the US continue to drive on international, national and local revenues, and the great brands of English football certainly have room to develop."

Hicks and Gillett, who have said they intend to be "custodians" and hold Liverpool as a family asset, will own the club via a company structure based in the tax havens of the Cayman Islands and the US state of Delaware. The ultimate holding company, Kop Investment LLC, is registered in Delaware, which has low corporation tax and no capital gains tax, and its principal office is at Hicks's corporate headquarters in Dallas, Texas. One professional involved with the deal said that this did not mean the two men foresaw a sale or flotation and were "sheltering" those future gains from tax, but that it was simply "a tax efficient" way to structure the deal.

[Eth]

I'm looking forward to next season when Dirk will be totally settled - he just needs a little more composure and time to settle into the premiership. I'd rather have him in our team than out of it.

[AFII]

It just shows why Moores had to leave. He is one of us but he isn't a businessman.

I'm not worried about the loan. They will probably pay off a part of it by selling the name of the new stadium.

[The_weatherman]

There was also something in the Guardian about us getting 3m. as a sell on for Baros in january which bought us one Arbeloa. So we have got around 9m. quid for Baros in the end - good deal

[Maestro]

Moores LENT the club £10m. We then got a cash injection from UEFA as soon as we eliminated Maccabi Haifa.

[tomasjj]

It just shows why Moores had to leave. He is one of us but he isn't a businessman.

I am sorry, but are you using the fact that Moores lent the club money to buy Kuyt against him?
Sometimes you need to think before you speak, mate.

Before the takeover you were banging on about that Moores should leave because he didn't have the money to finance players, and when he does he is ****e at business.

[AFII]

We didn't made good enough sponsorship deals and that is why he was forced to borrow the club £10m.

If he had been a better businessman then we would have had better sponsorship deals and that means that he wouldn't need to borrow the club any money.

I Moores but he isn't a businessman.

[disco]

[tsb]

From the blog article on the Guardian

"You'll never repay this loan"

[Diego]

Thomas O Hicks and George Gillett Jr, the two American businessmen who are close to completing their takeover of Liverpool, have borrowed almost £300m from the Royal Bank of Scotland to finance the deal.

they just said in the press confrense that they bought the club with out borrowing money, right? or was it just that they didn't put the club in debt?

[Red_Polo]

From the blog article on the Guardian

"You'll never repay this loan"

FLMAO that blog is the biggest cunting pile of ****e

[AFII]

They said at the PC that they had borrowed money from the bank of Scotland to buy the club but that they hadn't done it in the same way as Glazer did and put huge debt into the club.

So it's a no news story.