Is Dubai's interest in Liverpool dead??

[ukfootballfan101]

There have been some interesting business stories about Dubai in the past few days, most of which haven't been picked up by major news outlets (that I have seen).

Dubai seems to be having major problems financing many of its development deals, things are so bad Dubai has received a $15bn (£8.5bn) loan from Abu Dhabi last week...

Have a read of this article, let me know what you think:-

https://www.breakingviews.com/2008/10/02/Dubai.aspx

The article refers to DIC no longer being interested in LFC, which we knew anyway as it was believed Sheikh Mohammed would buy us personally. But with the purchase cost and the stadium pushing a total of around £1bn, I don't think he could afford it, if he has to prop up other Dubai state owned businesses.

I keep up to date on business news and I was thinking about writing an article on which billionaires may invest in the premier league in the current climate, would that be of interst to anyone?

[DannyMan2006]

I keep up to date on business news and I was thinking about writing an article on which billionaires may invest in the premier league in the current climate, would that be of interst to anyone?

Very much so.

[MrMichael]

Yeah, I would; if you do it, give me a shout and I'll move it to the articles section if you wanted?

[Red Chilli]

There have been some interesting business stories about Dubai in the past few days, most of which haven't been picked up by major news outlets (that I have seen).

Dubai seems to be having major problems financing many of its development deals, things are so bad Dubai has received a $15bn (£8.5bn) loan from Abu Dhabi last week...

Have a read of this article, let me know what you think:-

https://www.breakingviews.com/2008/10/02/Dubai.aspx

The article refers to DIC no longer being interested in LFC, which we knew anyway as it was believed Sheikh Mohammed would buy us personally. But with the purchase cost and the stadium pushing a total of around £1bn, I don't think he could afford it, if he has to prop up other Dubai state owned businesses.

I keep up to date on business news and I was thinking about writing an article on which billionaires may invest in the premier league in the current climate, would that be of interst to anyone?

It would

I don't think there's ever been anything serious in the Dubai interest since they lost out first time. I'm prepared for the barrage of quotes and abuse etc but I just get the feeling it's been a case of wishful thinking and some canny PR by Dubai.

[Vermilion]

Agree, think the possibility of a Dubai/Sheik Mo takeover of LFC is now as dead as a dodo.

But the possibility of billionaires buying smaller Prem clubs is still very much on the cards imo, with major squad investment following at those clubs, it's going to be a tough few years ahead of us i think, with Newcastle (obviously), the Bitters & Spurs ripe for takeover at a reasonable price.

[MrMichael]

Agree, think the possibility of a Dubai/Sheik Mo takeover of LFC is now as dead as a dodo.

But the possibility of billionaires buying smaller Prem clubs is still very much on the cards imo, with major squad investment following at those clubs, it's going to be a tough few years ahead of us i think, with Newcastle (obviously), the Bitters & Spurs ripe for takeover at a reasonable price.

About 50p each?

[ukfootballfan101]

Ok, I wrote this last night, it's unfinished but I'm going away for a few days and I don't know if i'll have internet access. I have more names to add to the list and I'll write a little profile for each of the main ones when I have chance.

MrMichael, If you want to move this into a different section, feel free to do so.

The Billionaires playground – Future investment in the Premier League

As we all know foreign investment in the premier league has become very popular in the past few years and there are new stories in the papers every week about other clubs being sold.

This is how the league currently looks:-

British owned:-

Arsenal – Several shareholders
Blackburn – John Williams
Bolton – Eddie Davies
Everton – Bill Kenwright
Hull City – Paul Duffen
Middlesbrough – Steve Gibson
Newcastle – Mike Ashley
Stoke – Peter Coates
Spurs – Daniel Levy
West Brom – Jeremy Peace
Wigan – Dave Whelan

Foreign owned:-

Aston Villa – Rander Lerner (USA)
Chelsea – Abramovich (Russia)
Fulham – Al Fayed (Egypt)
LIVERPOOL – (Hicks/Gillett)
Man City – Sheik Mansour (Abu Dhabi)
Man Utd – The Glazers (USA)
Portsmouth – Alexandre Gaydamak (France)
Sunderland – Drumaville Consortium (mixed, mainly USA)
West Ham – Gudmundson (Iceland)

Why buy a premier league team?

Profit?

It is widely reported there is little or no profit to be made in owning a football club, this is a myth. Thaksin Shinawatra made a reported £50m profit by selling 90% of Manchester City to Abu Dhabi – Not a bad return in only 12 months. Mike Ashley is reportedly wanted AT LEAST £50m profit from Newcastle and Hicks and Gillett are supposed to want double that to sell Liverpool.

Premier league teams are seen as a good sports investment as the leagues revenues are projected to match the NFL in the near future but the teams are being sold for much lower values – this was one of the attractions for Hicks if I recall correctly.

With domestic TV money reaching an all time high, the league is now looking to make more money elsewhere through the 39th game and increased foreign TV revenue – this will soon generate more money than the domestic TV deals generate.

So, someone with enough cash (Everton are reportedly being sold for £200m) to buy a club could do so, invest a minimal amount – enough to avoid relegation and maybe some ground improvements, and wait for the value to go up then sell them on.

However, there are other more effective ways of making money depending on your expertise. In the current climate short selling shares (outside the UK and USA following their suspension on banking stocks) and commodity (Gold etc) speculation are two of a huge number of options that can yield far bigger profits.

To build (or in Liverpool’s case revitalise) a footballing giant the amount of money (and time) required is more significant as the stadium and the squad both need to be world class. You could argue Newcastle has the stadium but not the squad, Liverpool (almost) have the squad but not the stadium. If this is the aim of the new owner they need to be prepared to spend a minimum of £500m (US$1bn).

Other reasons?

Image – There are obvious benefits to your image; increased world exposure, prestige and boost to the ego.

Political reasons – Billionaires in unstable countries or who have generated their wealth in questionable ways may seek to invest some of their cash in premiership club as it is a high profile asset in a stable country.

Fans – There are rich football fans out there, Jack Waker was a big Blackburn fan who spent tens of millions on Blackburn in the early 90s. But football has changed since, the amounts of money have increased dramatically and there are no UK billionaires who are known to be big enough fans to pump money into their club.



Billionaires who may invest

If we assume a new owner would need to spend £500m (although for Liverpool it would be closer to £700m) on the purchase and improving the squad and stadium; and they don’t want to spend all their money on their new toy, this reduces the list of people who are in a position to buy in the current financial climate.

Eliminating those people who have no interest in football (Bill Gates etc) reduces the list even further.

Here are a few of the main possibilities:-

Xu Rongmao (China) – Estimated worth US$7bn

Linked with buying Newcastle.

Anil Ambani (India) – Estimated worth US$42bn

Linked with buying Newcastle and Everton.

Mukesh Ambani (India) – Estimated worth US$43bn

Brotherly rivalry is very strong - to the point that they hate each other. If Anil buys a club Mukesh might be tempted to follow to steal some of the limelight.

Oleg Deripaska (Russia) – Estimated worth US$28bn

Linked with buying West Brom.


Others:-

Mikhail Fridman (Russia) – US$20bn – Another (younger) Roman Abramovich who may want to move some of his wealth out of Russia?

Mikhail Prokhorov (Russia) – US$19bn – Made money in oil and precious metals, has an interest in sport, has provided financial support to CSKA Moscow.

Ruia Brothers (India) – US$15bn – They run the Essar group (Steel, oil, shipping etc), members of the quickly expanding group of Indian billionaires.

Roustam Tariko (Russua) – US$3.5bn – Made his money in Russian Vodka, Bachelor playboy who likes to party.

[Marky]

Tbh i dont really care about that **** now. For the time being on the field matters must come first. Although i suppose off the field matters still have to be dealt with.

[Vermilion]

About 50p each?

[Shanks]

Tbh i dont really care about that **** now. For the time being on the field matters must come first.

Why even post on this thread then?

That's why we have threads that you can either contribute to, or just read and ignore.

The guy has put some effort into this and it makes for a good read.

[MrMichael]

Nice one fella, an interesting read. I've copied it over to a thread in the articles forum and moved some of the responses in there too, you should be able to edit it in there if you do want to add to it

[Jas]

Was listening to Alan Brazil on Talksport this morning, he had some journalist from Arabian Business News on, they discussed the possible LFC takeover and this journalist was saying that Sheik Mo is still interested in buying us.

[Elvoz]

Was listening to Alan Brazil on Talksport this morning, he had some journalist from Arabian Business News on, they discussed the possible LFC takeover and this journalist was saying that Sheik Mo is still interested in buying us.

and that if ashley dropped his price he could sell newcastle in 2 hours