Dubai International to make bid for Liverpool FC

[BillobShaisley]

$1Bil = £500mil

The exchange rates has got higher recently too. It's still a big turnaround.


I think the same people having a go at Moores now are the ones who thought he was lining his pockets over the sale to the yanks instead of DIC !! Moores was a legend as some of you nippers are only now starting to realise!

[CAD]

John Moores was a legend as some of you nippers are only now starting to realise!

[Exiled_red]

I think they are valuing the club on the basis that there will be a new ground at some point in the future producing a significant increase in revenue, by continually stating that they won't sell they want to imply that they will be around to collect this "payout" or that they require a huge insentive to sell.

However in my mind there are a few points of note:
- There is no doubt that they are over valuing the club as it currently stands
- David Moores undervalued the club
- Hence Hicks and Gillett bought it on the cheap

As to whether the club would be worth £1b when the stadium is complete, to be honest I have no idea, but I feel they are using the value they feel the club will be worth in 5 years in an attempt to sell it now for that price

[coop]

At the moment Hicks and Gillett are going to have to apply for planning again on the new stadium due to an increase in capacity.

I personally dont think Hicks will sell until they have this permission in place as this would add value to the club as well.

Ignore what Hicks and Gillett paid for the club because they got us on the cheap.

Once the planning permission is granted then they can justify wanting a large increase in the value of the club.

DIC are an investment firm and there business is to buy companies who arent reaching its potential so they buy it get it running as it should then sell it on, much like they will be planning for Liverpool.

Due to how they operate this is why DIC wont pay a high price for the club and why i believe there is still plenty of talking between Hicks/Gillett and DIC before any sort of offer is made.

[Lecter]

LFC INSIGHT: Why the Americans got it so wrong
Feb 6 2008 by Ian Doyle, Liverpool Daily Post

On the anniversary of the sale of Liverpool FC to Tom Hicks and George Gillett, chief football writer Ian Doyle looks at how their arrival has played out on the pitch

‘AS ALWAYS, I am focused on training and coaching my team.” It may not be quite up there with some of the fabled utterances of his predecessors, but few phrases can have set in motion such a sequence of events as the one Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez repeated over and over again during his weekly pre-match Press briefing in late November.

Those words alerted the public for the first time to the simmering discontent that had been brewing between the Spaniard and the club’s co-owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks over future transfer strategy.

It pushed Benitez to the brink of being jettisoned from Anfield and led a Liverpool fanbase suspicious of the American duo’s motives to draw up battle lines and side with the Spaniard.

That continuing support for Benitez and intolerance of Gillett and Hicks has manifested itself in different ways, from a rallying march outside Anfield, banners, chants and stay-behind protests inside the stadium to the formation of a fan group aimed at purchasing the club.

Of course, the reason behind Benitez’s ire in November was the discovery Gillett and Hicks had met Jurgen Klinsmann earlier in the week to discuss a proposal to become the next Liverpool manager.

It was a time when the team, although unbeaten in the Premier League and through to the quarter-finals of the Carling Cup, had left themselves needing to win their final two Champions League group games to guarantee progress to the lucrative knockout stages.

Approaching Klinsmann as an “insurance policy” was nothing new. Clubs, Liverpool included, do it all the time. But what they don’t do is allow the information to leak so readily and then come out and publicly admit another party had been approached, as Hicks did last month.

In the event, Liverpool beat Porto and then won 4-0 in Marseille to qualify from their Champions League group, the latter victory coming just days before Hicks and Gillett met with Benitez to discuss their “misunderstanding”.

Hicks later intimated Benitez would have been sacked had Liverpool been eliminated.

SO, compare and contrast that stance with the effect of the high-profile American takeover of another heavyweight North West club.

Within months of the Glazers taking control at Manchester United in the summer of 2005, the Old Trafford side crashed out of the Champions League at the group stage.

It was the first time United had suffered such failure in a decade and led to calls for manager Sir Alex Ferguson to be axed.

The Glazers, however, didn’t flinch, and instead bankrolled an unprecedented spending spree which helped United win the Premier League last year and remain handily placed to do the same again this season.

The arrival of Gillett and Hicks at Anfield had promised similar financial support for Benitez.

Indeed, Gillett himself said: “If Rafa said he wanted to buy ‘Snoogy Doogy’ we would back him.”

That came in the wake of Benitez’s blast after the Champions League final defeat to AC Milan in May, in which the manager fumed at the lack of urgency with which Liverpool were moving in the market.

It’s been a common gripe for Benitez and the crux of his issues with the American owners, the manager often bemoaning their failure to understand the complex machinations of the transfer window.

In mitigation, while Hicks and Gillett have a wide sporting portfolio, their knowledge of English football – let alone the running of a Premier League club – was pretty much zero when they assumed control. Therefore, much of their subsequent actions have been informed by advice largely from inside Anfield itself. When they have got the cheque book out – although it later transpired to be somebody else’s – Hicks and Gillett have given Benitez unprecedented backing.

WHILE Snoogy Doogy remains elsewhere, more than £40m was spent last summer with the centrepiece the club record arrival of Fernando Torres.

A further £6m was splashed out on Martin Skrtel last month – a sign, according to Hicks, of the continued support for Benitez’s tenure – while Liverpool will tie up a £17m deal for Javier Mascherano this week.

More than £20m has been recouped in sales, with further expensive departures expected at the end of the season.

But despite the new signings, Liverpool have again failed to marry their Champions League exploits with a sustained tilt at the Premier League title.

While Benitez must take his share of the blame for that, the off-field uncertainty engendered by the arrival and subsequent actions of Gillett and in particular Hicks have not helped.

Liverpool were unbeaten and within touching distance of the league leaders before the infamous summit with Klinsmann. Since then, Benitez’s side have won just five league games and surrendered the final Champions League qualification place to, of all teams, Everton.

Benitez, though, appears to have ridden the storm – at least for now – and, with Liverpool retaining an interest in the FA Cup and Champions League and well placed to take back fourth place with 14 league games remaining, something can yet be salvaged from the season.

But having undermined Benitez by going public with the Klinsmann revelations, it is likely the uneasy truce that currently persists between the manager and Gillett and Hicks will be tested to the limit once the summer transfer window opens in June.

That’s assuming all three are still at Liverpool. However, given the rate of change at Anfield during the last 12 months, it seems highly unlikely

[RawRed]

Gillett & Hicks, one year on: from hope to despair
Feb 6 2008 by Tony Barrett, Liverpool Echo

TODAY marks the first anniversary of the takeover of Liverpool FC by George Gillett and Tom Hicks.. TONY BARRETT examines the impact the American duo have had on the club over the past 12 months.

LIVERPOOL have played 36 league games since the takeover, winning 16, drawing 13 and losing seven.

A total of 61 points from those games is put into sharp perspective by the fact that current Premiership leaders Arsenal have garnered 60 points from just 25 games so far this season.

Qualification for this season's Champions League was secured when the Reds finished third in last season's Premiership.

They have a battle on their hands to repeat that this year with Everton, Man City and Aston Villa all involved in a four-way battle for fourth place.

This season has been a disappointment in the Premiership, with the long- awaited title challenge having failed to materialise.

Liverpool made it to last season's Champions League final, knocking out Barcelona, PSV Eindhoven and Chelsea following the arrival of Hicks and Gillett, only to lose to AC Milan in the final.

They are still involved in this season's competition with a last 16 tie against Inter Milan on the horizon.

TRANSFERS

Fernando Torres, Ryan Babel, Martin Skrtel, Lucas Leiva, Yossi Benayoun, Sebastian Leto, Andriy Voronin and Charles Itandje have all been brought in at an estimated cost of £50m.

Momo Sissoko, Djibril Cisse, Craig Bellamy, Luis Garcia, Mark Gonzalez, Jerzy Dudek and Robbie Fowler have all been sold or released with an estimated £31m being brought into the club.

There is also a deal near completion for Javier Mascherano, who would cost £18.6m.

THE STADIUM

One of the first pledges Hicks and Gillett made upon taking over the club was to have a spade go into Stanley Park within 60 days.

A total of 365 days have now passed and Stanley Park remains almost untouched.

Hicks and Gillett have revised the stadium plans they inherited twice during the past 12 months.

Their first effort had to be scaled down because costs threatened to spiral out of control.

The latest design, by Dallas-based HKS, has a 71,000 capacity, is due to be built for the start of the 2011/12 season and will cost around £300m to complete.

FINANCES

When Hicks and Gillett bought Liverpool FC they used loans rather than cash from their own personal fortunes to do so.

They paid £5,000 a share, a total outlay of £174.1m. They also borrowed another £11m to pay banks and advisers for doing the deal and a further £44.8m to absorb the club's debt at that stage. On top of this, another £70m was added to the loan for the stadium project and running costs.

At that stage, even though they had not spent a single cent from their own pockets, Hicks and Gillett told fans they would not "do a Glazer" by loading the club with debt.

Twelve months on and a huge refinancing deal later, such pledges ring incredibly hollow.

Financial restructuring was concluded last month when a £350m loan was taken out with the Royal Bank of Scotland and Wachovia. £105m of that was immediately loaded onto the club's books with the remaining £245m being taken on by Kop Holdings, the holding company set up by Hicks and Gillett when they bought the club last February.

In a recent statement, Hicks' spokesman admitted that the club will have to service the interest payments on both sections of the debt to the tune of around £30m a year.

THE CLUB'S REPUTATION

Alongside finances, the biggest area of concern since takeover.

Three major demonstrations by fans at a club which had previously had none tells its own sorry story.

From being a club which was renowned for keeping problems in-house, Liverpool have become a club where dirty linen is washed in public on an almost daily basis.

From Rafa Benitez's now infamous "I'm concentrating on coaching and training my players" press conference to Hicks' admission to the ECHO that Jurgen Klinsmann had been lined up as a successor to the Spaniard, the Americans’ PR has been a disaster zone.

Add in on-going speculation about the club's ownership and the last 12 months have been among the most difficult in Liverpool's history.

Damage has been done and unless there is a return to the principles of the much fabled "Liverpool Way" it will continue to be done.

RELATIONSHIPS

In simple terms, the relationship between Tom Hicks and George Gillett has all but broken down.

Marry at haste, repent at leisure seems to be the story of their partnership.

A marriage of convenience to see off DIC at the 11th hour has certainly not resulted in a tale of happy ever after.

Rumours of serious divisions between the pair have been circulating for some time and appeared to be confirmed when a statement was released to confirm the conclusion of refinancing, but it carried only Hicks' name. Gillett's was conspicuous by its absence.

Hicks has tried to build bridges with Benitez following his admission that he spoke to Klinsmann about replacing him and recently backed the Spaniard to continue as manager for the length of his current contract, a little over two more years.

Significantly, Gillett kept his counsel.

THE FUTURE

Dubai International Capital retain a very strong interest in buying Liverpool, an interest which did not wane whatsoever despite Hicks and Gillett concluding their refinancing deal.

The investment arm of the Dubai government may have missed out on getting their hands on the club last year, but they haven't gone away and the ECHO understands senior DIC executives have been in dialogue with Hicks and Gillett for several weeks with a view to doing a deal.

They are ready to test the American duo's determination to hold onto the club but only at a price that suits them – in their eyes, paying over the odds is not an option.

Significantly, Sheikh Mohammed al-Maktoum, whom the ECHO can reveal was a boyhood Liverpool fan, has now taken a personal interest in making the deal happen.

Gillett & Hicks: A year in their own words

"We have purchased the club with no debt on the club," George Gillett, Feb 6, 2007.

"We are going to build the finest team for the finest stadium in the Premier League and that is Liverpool," Tom Hicks, Feb 6, 2007.

"The shovel needs to be in the ground in the next 60 days," George Gillett, Feb 6, 2007.

"It's all about the fans and the winning tradition," George Gillett, Feb 7, 2007.

"I won't be a visible owner. You'll see me in the stand yes, but probably not so much in the directors' box as out in front meeting people and thanking them for their support," George Gillett, Feb 7, 2007.

"I'm not a person who goes and hides," George Gillett, Feb 7, 2007.

"Our job is to be custodians of this franchise, not the owners of this franchise," George Gillett, Feb 7, 2007.

"There's no way either of my two teams' fans have the level of intense passion that Liverpool has," Tom Hicks, May 26.

"We want to be regularly competing for the Premiership and the Champions League.

"The fans are smart. The fans can sense that George and I want exactly what they want," Tom Hicks, May 26.

"It is really time for Rafa to quit talking about new players and to coach the players we have," Tom Hicks, Nov 23, 2007.

"It's been a big misunderstanding blown very much out of proportion. George and I are happy to see that it has settled back down," Tom Hicks gives Rafa Benitez his backing, Dec 1, 2007.

"George and I have never been closer. We both were very disappointed and confused as to where that inaccurate information came from," Hicks dismisses rumours of a split, Dec 1, 2007.

"We attempted to negotiate an option as an insurance policy to have him (Klinsmann) become manager if Rafael left for Real Madrid or other clubs that were rumoured in the press," Tom Hicks, January 13, 2008.

"I will still be an owner of Liverpool Football Club in five years," Tom Hicks, Jan 27, 2008.

"Rafa's going to be our manager. He's got a contract here for two more years and hopefully he'll stay for longer.

"As far as I'm concerned Rafa Benitez will be here for at least the length of his contract," Tom Hicks, Jan 27, 2008.

* Tomorrow: Part Two of our look at Liverpool’s custodians

[email protected]

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

Now I really have heard it all

"Sheikh Mohammed al-Maktoum, whom the ECHO can reveal was a boyhood Liverpool fan"

Tony Barrett - Echo

[Tee]

If The Sheikh is a Liverpool fan and is personally involved, there is only one outcome - DIC WILL get the club and we will be able to compete for any player in the world, AND have a stadium that is the envy of all other clubs.

This is exactly what I had hoped for last year and if it happens we have got one hell of an exciting future.

For all those DIC haters and Hicks lovers... Your train will be coming in very soon... :whatever:

[homer1]

The Echo seem to be really pushing the fact that DIC are still very much around, trouble is no matter if the Sheikh himself is a fan - he will not pay over the odds for the club & Hicks wants a huge return for the potential

On a side note, I was under the impression that it was DIC who wanted the club, not the Sheikh & that they are completely seperate entities. Also would have thought that when they were looking like they had bought the club 12 months ago - the fact that he was a boyhood fan would have come out then if true

[tomasjj]

If the big man is involved, this will happen.

[AFII]

If the big man is involved, this will happen.

[SCarter]

So what will the Sheikh add to the deal? If DIC are not prepared to pay over the odds and the two Americans want top dollar, what difference will the Sheikh have on it?

I am really hopeful this deal will come off. If the fans keep up the pressure surely they will crack.

[Harv]

We can only hope the Sheik has become involved.

[Rashid]

Sheikh Mo's eldest son supports the Mancs... one other supports LFC. He himself supports us as Barrett says.

[Barnyard]

As to whether the club would be worth £1b when the stadium is complete, to be honest I have no idea, but I feel they are using the value they feel the club will be worth in 5 years in an attempt to sell it now for that price

On the up-side of this last point. It could also mean that any new owner would have to be in it fairly long term (minimum 10 years) to get the same sort of profit. 5 years to get it to what they paid for it and at least another 5 years to add their profit.

[Taffy]

Sheikh Mo's eldest son supports the Mancs... one other supports LFC. He himself supports us as Barrett says.

Anything else to add on the latest with the attempted takeover from your 'sources' mate?