Dubai International to make bid for Liverpool FC

[carlton]

In a strange way the quickest way of getting rid would be to fail to qualify, that'll mean the yanks will have to find even more money if they do wish to keep the club. We're unlikely to make any significant profit before the stadium is ready so without the extra loan for the stadium the yanks would still have to come up with near enough £50m a year just to keep the club.

Can you honestly see another loan being given for the stadium in the next few year? I cant. Not qualifying hurts the club too but the way we are going in the future the real battles will be with Villa, Everton, Citeh, Pompey, West Ham for 4th place so its not somehting we can bank on anymore

[Skillz]

Can you honestly see another loan being given for the stadium in the next few year? I cant. Not qualifying hurts the club too but the way we are going in the future the real battles will be with Villa, Everton, Citeh, Pompey, West Ham for 4th place so its not somehting we can bank on anymore

The Stadium loan will be against the club's assets and future ticket sales I would guess. I don't particularly have a problem with that. It's the original loan that should stay against G&H IMO and of course serviced by them as they surely have to put in some capital.

[Revo]

Can you honestly see another loan being given for the stadium in the next few year? I cant. Not qualifying hurts the club too but the way we are going in the future the real battles will be with Villa, Everton, Citeh, Pompey, West Ham for 4th place so its not somehting we can bank on anymore

we will **** them all and finish 2nd if we dont win the league

[Guest]

Speculation put about by the media who need stories to sell papers. There is absolutely nothing tangible whatsoever so far that DIC are in the process of making an offer or evening considering making one.

Nothing tangible ? Come on Al, you're smarter than that.

[Guest]

I think people should be patient. It's a game of chess at the moment. I can't see the americans staying there short term, their position is untenable and they won't be welcomed at Anfield.

DIC will pull this through but it may take time.

[El Jefecito]

They're both just bargaining at the moment. Hicks thinks that by forcing through the refinance that they'll be able to push the price up which in theory it would, however if tonights reports are true DIC have told them that there offer will actually go down if the refinance goes ahead.

Im almost certain that both sides want to do a deal its just a case of finding some agreement, ive got a feeling thats going to take a while though.

Saddling the club with 200m+ of debt will not make the price go up, quite the opposite in fact.

[carlton]

YANKS SNUB £300M REDS BID AS ROW DEEPENS
By David Maddock 21/01/2008
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The American owners of Liverpool have turned down flat a £300million proposal from DIC to buy the club.

The Mirror can reveal informal talks between Tom Hicks and George Gillett, and the investment arm of the Dubai Government have been on-going for at least the last fortnight.

But we can also reveal that DIC, which is ultimately run by Sheikh Mohammed, the world's richest man, have been told their valuation is nowhere near the Americans' idea of what the Anfield club is worth.

Dubai Investment Capital were rejected out of hand by the Americans, who have told their potential suitors to go away and only come back with an offer when they are ready to bid in the region of £450m.
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Speaking last night, a bullish Hicks insisted: "I and my family always have been and remain fully committed to co-owning the club. No one in my family has ever indicated any desire to sell our stake in the club, and we expect and intend to be co-owners of the club, and to actively and enthusiastically support the manager, players and fans for many years to come."

It leaves the ball firmly in DIC's court. They are keen to win control of Liverpool, after having their initial attempt to buy the business wrecked a year ago, in circumstances that they still feel were 'dishonourable'.

But even though the investment group is one of the world's richest companies, they are not prepared to offer above what they see as the "true value" of the club, which means negotiations could drag on for months.

Usa v DIC

Tom Hicks owns:

Ice Hockey team Dallas Stars, bought for £42m in 1995

Baseball team Texas Rangers, bought for £123m in 1998.

Hicks Holdings is the company that controls his sporting and real estate empire, worth over Û1billion (£511m).

Has interests in fossil fuel drilling tools, a data services company and an Argentine pet food company.

George Gillett owns:

Ice Hockey team Montreal Canadiens, bought for £95m in 2000.

Gillett Evernham Motorsports, bought from Roy Evernham in August 2007.

Booth Creek Ski Holdings Inc, running a range of ski resorts across America. Northland Services Inc - a marine transportation company Great Northern Bank and Sierra Organics - a landscaping and gardening company.

Dic own:

Travelodge Hotels Ltd, bought for £675m in 2006.

The Tussauds Group, bought for £800m in March 2005. In May 2007 they merged The Tussauds Group with Blackstones Merlin Entertainments Group to create the second largest visitor attraction operator, after Disney, in the world. The Alliance Medical Group, bought for £600m in November 2007.

Mauser AG (industrial packaging specialist), bought for £635m in June 2007. Doncasters Group Ltd (manufacturer of precision engineered components and systems), bought for £700m in May 2006.

Owns 'significant' shares - estimated to be between 2 and 4 per cent - of HSBC, Sony, Daimler - Chrysler and ICICI Bank.

[Redfan63]

Source: euFootball.biz ;21 January 2008

DIC placed formal bid for Liverpool

The English Liverpool ownership split has become so contentious that co-owner George Gillett is debating whether to join a plan to buy out fellow owner Tom Hicks.

Gillett can buy out Hicks or get with Hicks on a refinancing plan to help the club. The co-owners have almost finished off a deal for a GBP 350 million loan that would cover the GBP 218.9 million they borrowed to take over the club a year ago.

According to the Observer the duo now received a formal offer of about GBP 500 million for their shares in the club by Dubai International Capital (DIC), the investment branch of the Dubai government, which has been trying to get a toehold in the club.

DIC, which missed the deadlines in Feb. 2007, initially were interested in buying Hicks' 50 percent share. However, it is claimed DIC now made an offer for the complete buy-out of the American owners.

The takeover bid arrives at a particularly difficult moment for Hicks and Gillett, who have drawn the ire of supporters for entering into a public dispute with Rafa Benítez over transfer funding and Hicks' admission that they talked to Jürgen Klinsmann about replacing the manager.

But Gillett might prefer Hicks to DIC, despite the problems the co-owners have had of late. The pair has an option to purchase the other's stake in the club, although Gillett would need help to achieve that goal.

The Royal Bank of Scotland has indicated that it expects the refinancing deal to be concluded this week. The arrangement fee could be as high as GBP 40 million, with annual interest payments of up to GBP 30 million depending on the percentage of personal equity injected into the deal.

Gillett could press Hicks to sell next week by refusing the refinancing package.

[Redfan63]

Liverpool fans crave Dubai ending to nightmare
By David Bond
Last Updated: 2:15am GMT 21/01/2008


Liverpool fans planning what is likely to be the first in a series of anti-American protests at Anfield tonight are in no doubt. Having seen their bid dramatically trumped by Tom Hicks and George Gillett last year, Dubai International Capital are the only solution to a crisis distinctly out of keeping with the club's dignified and illustrious history.

At the same time as angry supporters were bombarding Hicks's New York-based public relations advisers, Kekst, with abusive emails last week, desperate electronic missives were being sent to DIC's Dubai offices urging the country's fabulously rich ruling al-Maktoum family to launch a rescue bid for Liverpool.


That bid, which could be worth around £350 million, remains on hold today following a refusal from Hicks to allow DIC access to talk to his bankers, Royal Bank of Scotland.

Hicks wants to wait until after a £350 million refinancing is concluded in the next few days, believing that he will then be able to ask DIC for more money.

But DIC are anxious to strike immediately, fearing the financial position of the club will only worsen if the refinancing goes through. In addition to around £25 million of 'rolled up' interest, the refinancing is set to cost £15 million in fees to the banks, RBS and Wachovia. DIC are likely to reduce the value of their offer to Hicks and Gillett in order to ensure that no more money is wasted. Another £20 million is thought to have been spent on fees to architects for the delayed new £400 million stadium at Stanley Park.

Despite threats that they will walk away if the refinancing goes through, DIC remain committed to buying Liverpool. That will be welcomed by supporters who, according to one online poll last week, overwhelmingly want to see Hicks and Gillett replaced by DIC. Just one per cent want to see the Americans remain in charge while 83 per cent want to see DIC take over.

advertisementBut would DIC necessarily be the answer? In terms of financial muscle there can be no question that they are far more powerful.Although DIC chief executive Samir Al Ansari, a lifelong Liverpool supporter, will want to run the club along proper commercial lines, he is backed by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and will be able to call on tens of billions of pounds. Crucially, with the stadium plans on hold, DIC will be able to dodge the global credit crunch by borrowing from Dubai state funds at lower interest rates.

Gillett, the owner of the Montreal Canadiens ice hockey team, was never likely to be the sort of super-rich chairman Liverpool needed. That is why, as DIC stalled over the deal last December, he brought in Hicks to help him secure the club. Hicks, one of the pioneers of leveraged takeovers in the United States, has a wealth estimated at $1.3 billion (£665 million), according to last year's Forbes magazine 'Rich List'. But the Dallas Stars and Texas Rangers owner has been hit hard by the credit crunch.

There is also a question of will. Hicks and Gillett only put up £7.5 million each to secure the costly loans taken out with RBS last year to buy the club in a £220 million deal. And the new refinancing deal has stalled largely because of the Americans' attempt to load that debt on to the club's books and their reluctance to put up more of their own cash.

DIC sources, on the other hand, insist they have a true and long-term commitment to Liverpool - despite leaks of a sensitive City document last year which set out how they could reap a 25 per cent profit if they sold out by 2012. DIC sources insist there was never any intention to sell the club on so quickly.

In the absence of any serious rival bidder, DIC are seen as the only way of ending what has turned from an American dream into a nightmare.

[Sarb]

Liverpool fans crave Dubai ending to nightmare
By David Bond
Last Updated: 2:15am GMT 21/01/2008


Liverpool fans planning what is likely to be the first in a series of anti-American protests at Anfield tonight are in no doubt. Having seen their bid dramatically trumped by Tom Hicks and George Gillett last year, Dubai International Capital are the only solution to a crisis distinctly out of keeping with the club's dignified and illustrious history.

At the same time as angry supporters were bombarding Hicks's New York-based public relations advisers, Kekst, with abusive emails last week, desperate electronic missives were being sent to DIC's Dubai offices urging the country's fabulously rich ruling al-Maktoum family to launch a rescue bid for Liverpool.


That bid, which could be worth around £350 million, remains on hold today following a refusal from Hicks to allow DIC access to talk to his bankers, Royal Bank of Scotland.

Hicks wants to wait until after a £350 million refinancing is concluded in the next few days, believing that he will then be able to ask DIC for more money.

But DIC are anxious to strike immediately, fearing the financial position of the club will only worsen if the refinancing goes through. In addition to around £25 million of 'rolled up' interest, the refinancing is set to cost £15 million in fees to the banks, RBS and Wachovia. DIC are likely to reduce the value of their offer to Hicks and Gillett in order to ensure that no more money is wasted. Another £20 million is thought to have been spent on fees to architects for the delayed new £400 million stadium at Stanley Park.

Despite threats that they will walk away if the refinancing goes through, DIC remain committed to buying Liverpool. That will be welcomed by supporters who, according to one online poll last week, overwhelmingly want to see Hicks and Gillett replaced by DIC. Just one per cent want to see the Americans remain in charge while 83 per cent want to see DIC take over.

advertisementBut would DIC necessarily be the answer? In terms of financial muscle there can be no question that they are far more powerful.Although DIC chief executive Samir Al Ansari, a lifelong Liverpool supporter, will want to run the club along proper commercial lines, he is backed by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and will be able to call on tens of billions of pounds. Crucially, with the stadium plans on hold, DIC will be able to dodge the global credit crunch by borrowing from Dubai state funds at lower interest rates.

Gillett, the owner of the Montreal Canadiens ice hockey team, was never likely to be the sort of super-rich chairman Liverpool needed. That is why, as DIC stalled over the deal last December, he brought in Hicks to help him secure the club. Hicks, one of the pioneers of leveraged takeovers in the United States, has a wealth estimated at $1.3 billion (£665 million), according to last year's Forbes magazine 'Rich List'. But the Dallas Stars and Texas Rangers owner has been hit hard by the credit crunch.

There is also a question of will. Hicks and Gillett only put up £7.5 million each to secure the costly loans taken out with RBS last year to buy the club in a £220 million deal. And the new refinancing deal has stalled largely because of the Americans' attempt to load that debt on to the club's books and their reluctance to put up more of their own cash.

DIC sources, on the other hand, insist they have a true and long-term commitment to Liverpool - despite leaks of a sensitive City document last year which set out how they could reap a 25 per cent profit if they sold out by 2012. DIC sources insist there was never any intention to sell the club on so quickly.

In the absence of any serious rival bidder, DIC are seen as the only way of ending what has turned from an American dream into a nightmare.

Didn't somone mention a source saying G&H had taken £15m out the club recently? That's bad news if they have used it for this. These two ain't spent a penny of their own money since they bought us. ******s

[AFII]

Didn't somone mention a source saying G&H had taken £15m out the club recently? That's bad news if they have used it for this. These two ain't spent a penny of their own money since they bought us. ******s

I guess that we got the answer to were our CL money went.

[AFII]

Liverpool takeover: all you need to know
By David Bond
Last Updated: 7:41am GMT 21/01/2008

Why are Liverpool in so much trouble?
A £350 million refinancing plan by owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett has stalled, opening the door for a renewed bid from Dubai International Capital (DIC).

How are relations between the Americans?
Said to have broken down - especially after Hicks went public on the fact they had courted Jurgen Klinsmann.

Who are DIC?
They are the investment arm of Dubai's fabulously wealthy ruling al-Maktoum family.

Why didn't DIC buy the club last year?
At the same time as DIC were stalling over a £450 million deal, Hicks emerged as a wealthy backer for Gillett. A leaked City document detailing plans by DIC to sell the club seven years after taking it over also shook club shareholders.

Will Tom Hicks now sell?
He repeatedly insists that he and Gillett are long-term owners. But DIC have approached him in the last few days about selling. And even if he gets the refinancing deal through, it is thought he will still be open to offers.

How long would a takeover take?
It all depends on whether Hicks and Gillett secure the refinancing. If that deal collapses or they pull out then it could be tied up within weeks. If it goes through, DIC might have to wait months.

How much are DIC prepared to pay?
A total price of around £350 million, including Liverpool's debt.

How much profit do Hicks and Gillett stand to make?
Around £40 million each, although a deal after the refinancing could reduce that.

What would a DIC takeover mean for Liverpool and manager Rafa Benitez?
DIC have access to far greater resources than the Americans and while they insist that the club will be run on commercial lines, they are committed to investing in players and a new stadium. But whatever happens, Benitez, is unlikely to be the manager they choose to oversee the revolution.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/mai.../sfnliv321.xml

[AFII]

Liverpool fans set for demo over Anfield owners
THE BATTLE FOR ANFIELD U.S OWNERS WILL KOP FAN BACKLASH No matter how loudly Kop protest, only sound they hear is dollar rustle
David Maddock 21/01/2008

There will be a passionate outpouring of emotion at Anfield tonight when Liverpool fans display their anger and contempt for their American owners.

But it will not even register 4,000 miles away in the United States as Tom Hicks and George Gillett go about their business of making money and electing US presidents.

A year ago, the pair were seen as the saviours of Anfield, the good-guy gunslingers who rode into town to provide the financial firepower to launch a realistic challenge to megarich Chelsea and Manchester United.

A year ago, senior officials at the club were briefing furiously against DIC - the investment arm of the Dubai government - suggesting that their rival bid was nowhere near as attractive as the American vision of the Anfield future.

A year later, those same officials are now desperately backing DIC's attempt to buy out Hicks and Gillett, suggesting that only a takeover by the Arabs can save the great Merseyside club.

But don't expect the two billionaires to be moved by the passion of the fans or the disapproval of the men they bought Liverpool from.

Some time this week, Hicks and Gillett intend to announce their successful negotiation of a £350million refinancing package that puts their purchase of Liverpool on a more solid footing by reducing the level of interest rates they are currently paying on the loans they took out.

They also hope to unveil their plans for the £300m stadium they see as the key to a prosperous future for Liverpool... no matter who is in charge.

That in itself means little to the prospects of DIC purchasing Liverpool. But it does mean that the £300m the Arabs have so far offered to buy the club will not be enough.

As we exclusively reveal today, Hicks and Gillett have dismissed that offer - after two weeks of informal talks - as being almost laughable against their future valuation of the club.

And that is why the protests against them and the passionate support for manager Rafa Benitez from the fans will not make a blind bit of difference to their hard-headed stance.

The future of Liverpool comes down to money. Cold-blooded, cold-hearted money in a sport of warm-blooded, hot-headed passion. DIC's current offer is generous enough. It is effectively £80m more than they were about to buy the club for less than 12 months ago, and that after debts have increased at Anfield significantly. It would give the Americans a handsome profit of £20m-£30m EACH in less than a year - for doing little more than putting a deal together.

But the bottom line is this: they believe that when they build a stadium with the club's own money in less than five years, the profit can be 10 times that.

There are indications the Americans want to sell. Gary Richardson, the presenter of Sportsweek on BBC Radio, quotes one close relative of Hicks as saying in the Liverpool boardroom: "I can't wait to get rid of this club, I'm sick and tired of it."

There is also evidence of a rift between Gillett and Hicks, with both men said to be distrustful of the other.

As Joe McClean, of accountants Grant Thornton's football finance unit, said yesterday: "The Hicks - Gillett axis has been fractured for some time and if someone is offering them a significant capital gain then it might prove to be irresistible."

There is also clear evidence that DIC are determined to buy Liverpool and put in place a strategy to end the current political and financial wranglings.

But the key is just how much they are prepared to pay. Insiders in Dubai suggest that they believe £300m is above what they see as the 'true value' of the club. But the American duo's 'true value' once the stadium is built is closer to £1billion.

Meanwhile, the club lurches on, with manager Benitez attempting to keep his players' minds on the game He has a game against Villa tonight that he knows he must win if he is to keep at bay the pack chasing the fourth Champions League spot, yet it seems football is the last thing on anyone's mind at Anfield.

It is a mess, maybe even - as one insider in the Hicks camp said last week - "a disaster." But that same insider also said that the Americans are also determined to "do the right thing."

And for two billionaires who have made their money buying struggling companies and making vast profits out of them, the right thing is to hold out for the highest price possible.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/footba...9520-20293238/

[dawmdt]

Doncasters Group Ltd (manufacturer of precision engineered components and systems), bought for £700m in May 2006.

They purchased this one from Royal Bank of Scotland... I doubt it makes any difference whether Thicks "blocks talks with his bankers", DIC and RBS have done business many times in the past.

[carlton]

I guess that we got the answer to were our CL money went.

There is also a question of will. Hicks and Gillett only put up £7.5 million each to secure the costly loans taken out with RBS last year to buy the club in a £220 million deal. And the new refinancing deal has stalled largely because of the Americans' attempt to load that debt on to the club's books and their reluctance to put up more of their own cash.

Curiously the money the originally put in adds up to 15 million.