Liverpool debt dispute forces Americans to consider sale

[Radar]

I don't.

Aren't there any proper LFC fans with the financial clout and business acumen required out there?

Duncan Oldham

[Craig_H]

So the upshot is that if the yanks cant refinance their loan by the end of february, the club will be up for sale again.

It's going to be a stressful 6 weeks...

[CharlieMansonsSquint]

Duncan Oldham

Yeah.

If he was allowed to charge everyone £30 quid for **** all.

Still I'm sure his day job as chairman of Newcastle is going well.

[Shaggy]

Liverpool owners in race to stay afloat at Anfield
Oliver Kay

The relationship between Liverpool’s co-owners is to be put to the ultimate test as Tom Hicks looks to George Gillett Jr to approve the £350 million refinancing plan that is needed if they are to stabilise their troubled regime at Anfield for the immediate future.

With the American tycoons’ £270 million loan with Royal Bank of Scotland due to expire next month, Hicks is determined to replace it with a £350 million loan that will allow Liverpool to proceed with the planned construction of a 70,000-capacity stadium in Stanley Park. Hicks said on Monday that the new deal would “close by the end of the week”, but Gillett is understood to be distinctly uneasy with the refinancing plan, as are many figures at Anfield.

It is widely expected, not least by Royal Bank of Scotland, that the refinancing deal will be ratified, possibly even today, but one well-placed source in the City has raised doubt over whether this will happen, partly owing to the misgivings of Gillett and Rick Parry, the chief executive, and partly because of doubts over the Americans’ ability to raise a relatively small sum with which to guarantee the new loan. If the owners are unable to repay the existing debt by the end of next month, Liverpool would officially fall into the ownership of the bank, but in reality it would force Hicks and Gillett to sell the club, barely 12 months after their takeover.

The expected outcome still is that Hicks and Gillett will secure the refinancing plan, which would allow them to press on with plans to build a stadium, having examined plans from two architects, Dallas-based HKS and Manchester-based AFL, at a meeting in New York a fortnight ago. With HKS’s original design having been dropped on the ground of cost, the budget has been set at £300 million, with AFL, the original choice before Hicks and Gillett came on board, thought to be marginal favourites.

The collapse of the refinancing plan would bring further embarrassment to the club, but some within Anfield, perhaps not least Rafael BenÍtez, might wonder whether such pain is worth enduring if it leads to a change of ownership. If Hicks and Gillett fail to secure a refinancing plan in time, they will almost certainly be forced to sell – with Dubai International Capital, which they gazumped at a late stage in the bidding process a year ago, believed to be monitoring events.

A change of ownership may represent BenÍtez’s best hope of staying as manager, after Hicks’s admission on Monday that he and Gillett had tried unsuccessfully to line up Jürgen Klinsmann. Hicks’s comments have met anger from supporters, with Jamie Carragher, the defender, suggesting that it was time that the club got back to the “Liverpool way” of doing things.

“It’s not just me thinking that,” Carragher, who made his 500th appearance for the club in the 5-0 victory over Luton Town in the FA Cup third-round replay on Tuesday, said. “Ask any fan. It’s not the way we have done things in the past.

“We are all aware of what is going on, but all we can do as players is concentrate on doing it on the pitch. The last nine or ten games we haven’t been good enough.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/spo...cle3200662.ece

Get in. There is light at the end of the tunnel.

[redblood]

They own the club 100% therefore it is one of their assets. Make's no difference to the club's security, only to the accountants, whether it's on our books or not. The club will still be the asset used to secure the loan

That's not true if they offer personal guarantees the debt will be secured against any business or indeed personal assets they have.

[DannyMan2006]

Duncan Oldham

Just needs a sequel to the book that never was.........

"How to mug off LFC fans with nice easy words"

Mind, I think G+H have beaten him to that book title and will surely have secured the copyright......

[Jayesh87]

Get in. There is light at the end of the tunnel.

Which bit you talkin about Shags?

[DannyMan2006]

Get in. There is light at the end of the tunnel.

The expected outcome still is that Hicks and Gillett will secure the refinancing plan, which would allow them to press on with plans to build a stadium, having examined plans from two architects, Dallas-based HKS and Manchester-based AFL, at a meeting in New York a fortnight ago. With HKS’s original design having been dropped on the ground of cost, the budget has been set at £300 million, with AFL, the original choice before Hicks and Gillett came on board, thought to be marginal favourites.

-------------

Not so sure myself like.

[Craig_H]

The good thing about this refinance thing, is that it's a question of fact, rather than speculation. The repayment IS due at the end of february and if they cant refinance, they WILL be up the ****ter. No need to speculate about that.

Now we just watch the days go by and hope.

[Shaggy]

Which bit you talkin about Shags?

The reinforcement (if indeed it can be considered that, but Oliver Kay is a journo I like) that Parry and Gillett (the good guy, at least I like to think he is) have grave misgivings about the refinancing and are at odds with Hicks.

Personally I want George and Butthead out and I would snap DIC's hand off now.

Change of ownership = Rafa staying. That's what I want.

It's still clutching at straws but I live in hope.

[Jayesh87]

The reinforcement (if indeed it can be considered that, but Oliver Kay is a journo I like) that Parry and Gillett (the good guy, at least I like to think he is) have grave misgivings about the refinancing and are at odds with Hicks.

Personally I want George and Butthead out and I would snap DIC's hand off now.

Change of ownership = Rafa staying. That's what I want.

It's still clutching at straws but I live in hope.

Surely that would be more likely to happen id they didn't sort out the refinancing of the loan?

[Craig_H]

The reinforcement (if indeed it can be considered that, but Oliver Kay is a journo I like) that Parry and Gillett (the good guy, at least I like to think he is) have grave misgivings about the refinancing and are at odds with Hicks.

Personally I want George and Butthead out and I would snap DIC's hand off now.

Change of ownership = Rafa staying. That's what I want.

It's still clutching at straws but I live in hope.

What makes you so sure that DIC wouldnt want someone else in charge?

Granted, they'd do things more respectfully and with more dignity than the yanks, but there's a chance they'd want to bring someone else in.

[Shaggy]

Surely that would be more likely to happen id they didn't sort out the refinancing of the loan?

Obviously, and although the article says the expected outcome is for the refinancing to go through, it's by no means certain. I see it as a ray of hope. I'd completely given up two days ago when I saw that clip of Hicks on US TV stating confidently that it would go through this week.

[Shaggy]

What makes you so sure that DIC wouldnt want someone else in charge?

Granted, they'd do things more respectfully and with more dignity than the yanks, but there's a chance they'd want to bring someone else in.

There's a chance but I'd take a large punt that they'd keep Benitez on.

[kurtangle01]

Get in. There is light at the end of the tunnel.

Liverpool owners in race to stay afloat at Anfield
Oliver Kay

It is widely expected, not least by Royal Bank of Scotland, that the refinancing deal will be ratified, possibly even today, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/spo...cle3200662.ece

There may be light at the end of the Tunnel but it looks to me that it's from an oncoming train.