Dubai International to make bid for Liverpool FC

[Danish_Pastry]

... oh they just need someone to come in with a high enough bid, then they have their money all along. They don't need money from the profit - if they won't stay around for 10 or more years - and I believe they won't.

By the way - It was mentioned yesterday, that the personal assets, they had put in, somehow were covering elements of the club, but kept under a personal cover?? Could anybody dig that piece out, so that it could be clarified. I even their personal investment is loans against the club - then it will only be the 295 + the 55 mio £ to pay interest off. Wow - that some sort of nigthmare to imagine how to find any coin for transfers then.

By the way - read the Independents comments on how the loans have been taken - and the Echos comments on the stadium (se that thread).

[MindGuerrillas]

Some people seem to be putting to much emphasis on the stadium naming rights. In reality they'll make little difference to our ability to repay the building loan.

Taking the Emirates deal as an example it was supposedly worth £100m but this was over 15 years so Arsenal get around £6.6m per year. This also includes a shirt sponsorship deal so you can knock off many millions per year to cover what they'd have been getting from a separate shirt deal. (Chelsea's current deal with Samsung is worth £10m per year!) Taking all that into account it leaves little to go towards the large loan repayments, if anything.

[CAD]

Exactly, H&G NEED the stadium if they're going to make any money....

No. They are only here to take our profits which amounts to about 20 mill£ a year. In doing that they have clevely put up collateral in KTH for about 250 mill£. They will try to emtpy LFC for all assets and then go into chapter 11 leaving the club in shambles. They will never build the stadium. They will use the money for the stadium to promote American Football in Europe and try to undermine soccer so it will seize to exist. All assets owned by G&H will be moved to their wifes so KTH will turn up empty when the time comes leaving LFC to pay all the debts. They will move the LFC franchise to Luxembourg to ensure a league title every year.


We really are screwed. I see that now

[Dhav]

Clear enough

That's the issue? We had 60 mill debt when Moores sold. Now we have 105 with some 40 mill£ for the first part of the stadium.

I give up

The standards have fallen
my value has dropped
but don't shed a tear
some walk like they own the place
whilst others creep in fear

I dont understand why you continue to ignore the fact that in practice the club will be paying their acquisition debt, which in my book puts us worse off than under Moores. And out of interest who do you and Disco think will be footing the bill in the event of the very real prospect of the club's income not being sufficient to meet repayments? Will G&H dip into their pockets as per their guarantee or will club assets be sold? I know which one I am inclined to think will happen.

[AFII]

No. They are only here to take our profits which amounts to about 20 mill£ a year. In doing that they have clevely put up collateral in KTH for about 250 mill£. They will try to emtpy LFC for all assets and then go into chapter 11 leaving the club in shambles. They will never build the stadium. They will use the money for the stadium to promote American Football in Europe and try to undermine soccer so it will seize to exist. All assets owned by G&H will be moved to their wifes so KTH will turn up empty when the time comes leaving LFC to pay all the debts. They will move the LFC franchise to Luxembourg to ensure a league title every year.


We really are screwed. I see that now

Well, that is what Hicks did with Corinthians.

[Roboklopp]

Clear enough

That's the issue? We had 60 mill debt when Moores sold. Now we have 105 with some 40 mill£ for the first part of the stadium.

I give up

No we dont simplty have the £105m. Had you bothered to read my initial post, you'd have seen that I pointed out the divison between the club & the parent company is pretty much irrelevant so we basically owe that debt too.

Bloody hell, it's bad enough explaining financial stuff for a job, without hainvg ot do it here too.

[disco]

And out of interest who do you and Disco think will be footing the bill in the event of the very real prospect of the club's income not being sufficient to meet repayments? Will G&H dip into their pockets as per their guarantee or will club assets be sold? I know which one I am inclined to think will happen.

I guess we'll have to see. I agree it shouldn't be the club IF it hasn't made a profit. Presumably they'd take out new loans if they didn't want to realise any of their own assets to pay for it.

[AFII]

I guess we'll have to see. I agree it shouldn't be the club IF it hasn't made a profit. Presumably they'd take out new loans if they didn't want to realise any of their own assets to pay for it.

Like Leeds did.

[Roboklopp]

I dont understand why you continue to ignore the fact that in practice the club will be paying their acquisition debt, which in my book puts us worse off than under Moores. And out of interest who do you and Disco think will be footing the bill in the event of the very real prospect of the club's income not being sufficient to meet repayments? Will G&H dip into their pockets as per their guarantee or will club assets be sold? I know which one I am inclined to think will happen.

I think he is incapable of doing so mate. It really is deeply frustrating isnt it?

[AFII]

Like them or loathe them - it looks as if the Yanks are here to stay at Liverpool FC
Jan 28 2008

THEY are the billionaire double-act currently giving the Kop choir more ammunition than Gary Neville and Wayne Rooney.

The popularity of Liverpool FC owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett has plummeted during the storm over their controversial refinancing deal and public spat with Rafael Benitez.

But today, as their hold over the Anfield club remained intact, Liverpool fans will be realising that love ‘em or hate ‘em, the Yanks may be here to stay.

Both men have presided over vast sporting empires and each has carved a position of power through hard-nosed business sense and unflinching ambition.

They have enjoyed the most lucrative of successes and each has dealt with monumental failure.

But supporters in Merseyside know little of the private lives and personal stories of the men who will influence their lives as Reds fans for the near future.

The pair are far from celebrities in their home country, where billionaire status does not necessarily guarantee column inches, but they are well-known to fans of their other sports teams.

Gillett, 69, is best known in North America for owning ice hockey outfit the Montreal Canadiens, and his personal fortune before investing in the Reds was said to be £500m.

Said to be mild-mannered but principled, he impresario is a graduate of Dominican College in Racine, Wisconsin, and made his money via everything from meat packaging to TV stations, sports teams and ski resorts.

He is an avid skier who helped put the popular Vail Mountain Ski Resort in the Central Colorado Rocky Mountains on the map, and still lives there with his wife Rose in Colorado.

He and his wife Rose have four sons – George III, Alexander and twins Foster and Andrew. Andrew is not involved in the family business, but Foster is his father’s proxy on the Liverpool board, where he serves as a director.

Gillett bought into the NFL’s Miami Dolphins when he was just 27 years old and moved into basketball with the Harlem Globetrotters, before becoming the first American owner of the Canadiens for £100m.

In 1979 he launched Gillett Communications by buying three small television stations. Three years later he bought the WSM television station in Nashville and in 1984 he acquired Post Corporation's eight television stations, 22 newspapers and associated plant.

His rise to multi-media tycoon had been fast and immensely profitable – until he reached 50.

At that milestone age Gillett nearly lost everything.

His company, Gillett Holdings, filed for bankruptcy protection after it defaulted on £300m of junk bond debt.

He was also declared bankrupt, losing his cherished collection of 30 sports cars and an Oregon ranch in the process.

He later said: “I had 10 days to get out of my house. I had to buy back my clothes and my dogs!’”

But showing the determination which became the hallmark of his career, he fought back to regain his fortune – after paying back all his creditors – and in the mid-1990s formed Booth Creek Management Corp., which among many other business interests, is one of the leading ski resort operators in America.

Before co-purchasing Liverpool last February, he had been involved in failed takeovers at the Denver Nuggets basketball team and the Colorado Avalanche ice hockey franchise.

Gillett’s business partner Thomas O Hicks is the man who has triggered the lion’s share of Liverpool supporters’ wrath.

Since the takeover, Hicks has assumed more of a spokesman’s role and triggered recent controversy when he admitted sounding out Jurgen Klinsmann about the manager’s job.

The son of a Texas radio station owner, Hicks graduated in finance from the University of Texas in 1968 and then embarked on a meteoric business rise which saw him, like co-owner Gillett, become a mogul.

His multi-billion dollar businesses included venture capital, communications, food and soft drinks – but hit a rough patch by the early 2000s, when investors in Equity Fund IV were burned by a $1.2bn billion plunge into telecom investments.

Father-of-six Hicks announced in 2004 that he would leave the firm he helped create to spend more time with his family and his sports teams.

But “retirement” for the 61-year-old did not mean a permanent retreat to his beloved and highly -exclusive Augusta golf club to whittle down his handicap.

Instead, Hicks formed Hicks Holdings, a vehicle for his sports and real estate empire, and started buying companies again in the $10millio to $250millio level, including an electronics firm with 1,000 employees in China and a pet-food business in Argentina.

Hicks has dabbled in the political scene of his home-state and backed various early political campaigns by president George W Bush.

In 1998, he bought baseball side the Texas Rangers from a consortium headed by George W Bush and made the would-be president a multi-millionaire. The following year he bought the Dallas Stars ice hockey team.

He continues to keep an active interest in his country’s politics and is a member of the political action committee for the 2008 presidential election campaign of former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani.

American journalists close to Hicks have watched in surprise at the turmoil and protest he has sparked in Merseyside.

To them the uniquely passionate nature of English football fans may have come as a shock to even the ultra-experienced Texan.

One Stateside newspaper quoted him after the Aston Villa game last week, which saw fans chant repeatedly for Hicks and Gillett to leave Liverpool, saying: “There is a big percentage of fans, for whom the football club is truly their life.”

Another columnist, Gil Le Breton for the Dallas Star-Telgram, wrote: “In England, if I'm reading this correctly, Americans – especially rich Texans – are expected to pay cash for sports franchises and to purchase new stadiums with their American Express cards. To do anything less, British soccer fans feel, is to compromise the player purchasing power of the local football club.

“In the United States, of course, what Hicks is doing is not at all unusual.”

As Texas Rangers reporter for the Dallas Morning News, Evan Grant has got to know Hicks well.

He speaks warmly of a man who, he says, has become “smarter, more patient and more thick-skinned” over his years in control of the Rangers.

Mr Grant spoke to Hicks late last week after the Texan, who loves to travel around the world with his wife, returned from holiday in Mexico before the protests during the Aston Villa game, which Hicks was looking forward to watching.

He says: “After the Aston Villa game I spoke to him about the chanting and the fans doing all the singing, and I joked with him about what words can rhyme with Hicks. He likes to laugh and he loves to talk about sports.

“I think he has got a great sense of humour, but one of the things which sees him get unfairly criticised is his passion for his teams. He does care whether they win or loose and maybe that sometimes makes him get more involved than he should.”

Mr Grant added, in reference to the Klinsmann admission, that Hicks can occasionally be misunderstood and says things publicly which are open to misinterpretation.

Hicks has enjoyed varying popularity with supporters of the Texas Rangers, though. Message boards for the side, as with any sports team, feature mixed reviews.

On one popular Rangers forum, one supporter writes about the row over Hicks’ ownership of Liverpool: “So, Hicks is being accused as being a double-talker who is reducing the club to mediocrity while he sells tickets to terminally loyal fans and makes a profit. Sound familiar?”

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/...4375-20403056/

[disco]

No we dont simplty have the £105m. Had you bothered to read my initial post, you'd have seen that I pointed out the divison between the club & the parent company is pretty much irrelevant so we basically owe that debt too.

Bloody hell, it's bad enough explaining financial stuff for a job, without hainvg ot do it here too.

It IS relevant, as I assume the club can only pay a dividend (i.e. pass money from club to holding company) if it’s made a sufficient profit – need an accountant to clarify this.

Their loan is secured by letter of credit and other assets of theirs, so it is not on the club.

I don't know what you do, but if you don't like (trying to) explain it perhaps you're in the wrong job

[disco]

Like Leeds did.

Difference is, H&G actually do have assets (albeit not in liquid form).

In reality, they'd have to sell if they couldn't keep up with payments.

[Roboklopp]

Like them or loathe them - it looks as if the Yanks are here to stay at Liverpool FC
Jan 28 2008

THEY are the billionaire double-act currently giving the Kop choir more ammunition than Gary Neville and Wayne Rooney.

The popularity of Liverpool FC owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett has plummeted during the storm over their controversial refinancing deal and public spat with Rafael Benitez.

But today, as their hold over the Anfield club remained intact, Liverpool fans will be realising that love ‘em or hate ‘em, the Yanks may be here to stay.

Both men have presided over vast sporting empires and each has carved a position of power through hard-nosed business sense and unflinching ambition.

They have enjoyed the most lucrative of successes and each has dealt with monumental failure.

But supporters in Merseyside know little of the private lives and personal stories of the men who will influence their lives as Reds fans for the near future.

The pair are far from celebrities in their home country, where billionaire status does not necessarily guarantee column inches, but they are well-known to fans of their other sports teams.

Gillett, 69, is best known in North America for owning ice hockey outfit the Montreal Canadiens, and his personal fortune before investing in the Reds was said to be £500m.

Said to be mild-mannered but principled, he impresario is a graduate of Dominican College in Racine, Wisconsin, and made his money via everything from meat packaging to TV stations, sports teams and ski resorts.

He is an avid skier who helped put the popular Vail Mountain Ski Resort in the Central Colorado Rocky Mountains on the map, and still lives there with his wife Rose in Colorado.

He and his wife Rose have four sons – George III, Alexander and twins Foster and Andrew. Andrew is not involved in the family business, but Foster is his father’s proxy on the Liverpool board, where he serves as a director.

Gillett bought into the NFL’s Miami Dolphins when he was just 27 years old and moved into basketball with the Harlem Globetrotters, before becoming the first American owner of the Canadiens for £100m.

In 1979 he launched Gillett Communications by buying three small television stations. Three years later he bought the WSM television station in Nashville and in 1984 he acquired Post Corporation's eight television stations, 22 newspapers and associated plant.

His rise to multi-media tycoon had been fast and immensely profitable – until he reached 50.

At that milestone age Gillett nearly lost everything.

His company, Gillett Holdings, filed for bankruptcy protection after it defaulted on £300m of junk bond debt.

He was also declared bankrupt, losing his cherished collection of 30 sports cars and an Oregon ranch in the process.

He later said: “I had 10 days to get out of my house. I had to buy back my clothes and my dogs!’”

But showing the determination which became the hallmark of his career, he fought back to regain his fortune – after paying back all his creditors – and in the mid-1990s formed Booth Creek Management Corp., which among many other business interests, is one of the leading ski resort operators in America.

Before co-purchasing Liverpool last February, he had been involved in failed takeovers at the Denver Nuggets basketball team and the Colorado Avalanche ice hockey franchise.

Gillett’s business partner Thomas O Hicks is the man who has triggered the lion’s share of Liverpool supporters’ wrath.

Since the takeover, Hicks has assumed more of a spokesman’s role and triggered recent controversy when he admitted sounding out Jurgen Klinsmann about the manager’s job.

The son of a Texas radio station owner, Hicks graduated in finance from the University of Texas in 1968 and then embarked on a meteoric business rise which saw him, like co-owner Gillett, become a mogul.

His multi-billion dollar businesses included venture capital, communications, food and soft drinks – but hit a rough patch by the early 2000s, when investors in Equity Fund IV were burned by a $1.2bn billion plunge into telecom investments.

Father-of-six Hicks announced in 2004 that he would leave the firm he helped create to spend more time with his family and his sports teams.

But “retirement” for the 61-year-old did not mean a permanent retreat to his beloved and highly -exclusive Augusta golf club to whittle down his handicap.

Instead, Hicks formed Hicks Holdings, a vehicle for his sports and real estate empire, and started buying companies again in the $10millio to $250millio level, including an electronics firm with 1,000 employees in China and a pet-food business in Argentina.

Hicks has dabbled in the political scene of his home-state and backed various early political campaigns by president George W Bush.

In 1998, he bought baseball side the Texas Rangers from a consortium headed by George W Bush and made the would-be president a multi-millionaire. The following year he bought the Dallas Stars ice hockey team.

He continues to keep an active interest in his country’s politics and is a member of the political action committee for the 2008 presidential election campaign of former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani.

American journalists close to Hicks have watched in surprise at the turmoil and protest he has sparked in Merseyside.

To them the uniquely passionate nature of English football fans may have come as a shock to even the ultra-experienced Texan.

One Stateside newspaper quoted him after the Aston Villa game last week, which saw fans chant repeatedly for Hicks and Gillett to leave Liverpool, saying: “There is a big percentage of fans, for whom the football club is truly their life.”

Another columnist, Gil Le Breton for the Dallas Star-Telgram, wrote: “In England, if I'm reading this correctly, Americans – especially rich Texans – are expected to pay cash for sports franchises and to purchase new stadiums with their American Express cards. To do anything less, British soccer fans feel, is to compromise the player purchasing power of the local football club.

“In the United States, of course, what Hicks is doing is not at all unusual.”

As Texas Rangers reporter for the Dallas Morning News, Evan Grant has got to know Hicks well.

He speaks warmly of a man who, he says, has become “smarter, more patient and more thick-skinned” over his years in control of the Rangers.

Mr Grant spoke to Hicks late last week after the Texan, who loves to travel around the world with his wife, returned from holiday in Mexico before the protests during the Aston Villa game, which Hicks was looking forward to watching.

He says: “After the Aston Villa game I spoke to him about the chanting and the fans doing all the singing, and I joked with him about what words can rhyme with Hicks. He likes to laugh and he loves to talk about sports.

“I think he has got a great sense of humour, but one of the things which sees him get unfairly criticised is his passion for his teams. He does care whether they win or loose and maybe that sometimes makes him get more involved than he should.”

Mr Grant added, in reference to the Klinsmann admission, that Hicks can occasionally be misunderstood and says things publicly which are open to misinterpretation.

Hicks has enjoyed varying popularity with supporters of the Texas Rangers, though. Message boards for the side, as with any sports team, feature mixed reviews.

On one popular Rangers forum, one supporter writes about the row over Hicks’ ownership of Liverpool: “So, Hicks is being accused as being a double-talker who is reducing the club to mediocrity while he sells tickets to terminally loyal fans and makes a profit. Sound familiar?”

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/...4375-20403056/

Bit of a nothing article that

[AFII]

It IS relevant, as I assume the club can only pay a dividend (i.e. pass money from club to holding company) if it’s made a sufficient profit – need an accountant to clarify this.

Their loan is secured by letter of credit and other assets of theirs, so it is not on the club.

I don't know what you do, but if you don't like (trying to) explain it perhaps you're in the wrong job

Their loan is on the club, all of it, every single pound. Even their so called cash security and letter of credit.

[AFII]

Nice PR piece.

We will see much more of that.