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- Aug 5, 2008
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Liverpool face financial meltdown over loans repayments schedule:
Spurs to buy Gerrard.
mg::hump:
Wednesday November 12 2008
Liverpool, a club whose American owners stand two months away from the expiry date of loans which could force them to sell up, are the most financially vulnerable side in the land, the Premier League's most experienced football financier declared yesterday.
Keith Harris of Seymour Harris, who brought Roman Abramovich to Chelsea and is currently seeking buyers for both Everton and Newcastle United, said he had doubts about whether Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Wachovia, buffeted by the financial crisis, were either willing or able to refinance the loans which currently prop up Liverpool.
Speaking at the International Football Arena conference in Zurich, Harris said of Britain's debt-laden clubs: "The one that worries me is Liverpool. The principal lenders (RBS and Wachovia) are two of those that have suffered. Whether they want to lend it again or not, they may not be able to."
Without fresh investment, said Harris, the club's joint owners could be forced to sell players to raise cash. If neither refinancing, nor new financial stakeholders can be found, the banks will have to consider whether to repossess the club.
Bankers begin to get uncomfortable when profit is less than twice the interest payments and Liverpool's profit barely covers all the huge interest payments with which Tom Hicks and George Gillett have saddled the club. "If theirs was a normal business they would be financially in the intensive care ward," one financier said yesterday.
Harris' comments comes amid new hints that Hicks and Gillett are looking to sell Liverpool -- despite their fantastic start to the season -- before the January 25 deadline by which RBS will decide whether to allow them a six-month extension on the refinancing arrangement they struck last January.
Gillett steadfastly refused to discuss the sale issue in London two weeks ago, during an interview in which he suggested that he was planning new sporting investment in India.
It is believed that a prospective Middle East investor -- unrelated to suitor Sheikh Mohammed, the ruler of Dubai -- walked away from discussions to buy Liverpool three weeks ago, during which an offer believed to be no better than the £500m Dubai International Capital (DIC) have offered was tabled.
Spurs to buy Gerrard.
mg::hump:Wednesday November 12 2008
Liverpool, a club whose American owners stand two months away from the expiry date of loans which could force them to sell up, are the most financially vulnerable side in the land, the Premier League's most experienced football financier declared yesterday.
Keith Harris of Seymour Harris, who brought Roman Abramovich to Chelsea and is currently seeking buyers for both Everton and Newcastle United, said he had doubts about whether Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Wachovia, buffeted by the financial crisis, were either willing or able to refinance the loans which currently prop up Liverpool.
Speaking at the International Football Arena conference in Zurich, Harris said of Britain's debt-laden clubs: "The one that worries me is Liverpool. The principal lenders (RBS and Wachovia) are two of those that have suffered. Whether they want to lend it again or not, they may not be able to."
Without fresh investment, said Harris, the club's joint owners could be forced to sell players to raise cash. If neither refinancing, nor new financial stakeholders can be found, the banks will have to consider whether to repossess the club.
Bankers begin to get uncomfortable when profit is less than twice the interest payments and Liverpool's profit barely covers all the huge interest payments with which Tom Hicks and George Gillett have saddled the club. "If theirs was a normal business they would be financially in the intensive care ward," one financier said yesterday.
Harris' comments comes amid new hints that Hicks and Gillett are looking to sell Liverpool -- despite their fantastic start to the season -- before the January 25 deadline by which RBS will decide whether to allow them a six-month extension on the refinancing arrangement they struck last January.
Gillett steadfastly refused to discuss the sale issue in London two weeks ago, during an interview in which he suggested that he was planning new sporting investment in India.
It is believed that a prospective Middle East investor -- unrelated to suitor Sheikh Mohammed, the ruler of Dubai -- walked away from discussions to buy Liverpool three weeks ago, during which an offer believed to be no better than the £500m Dubai International Capital (DIC) have offered was tabled.
