The latest foreign suitor to take an interest in saving one of English football’s most revered institutions is Kenny Huang, a former Wall Street broker who carries the distinction of being the first Chinese graduate to work on the New York Stock Exchange.
He is the head of Hong Kong-based investment company QSL Sports, which, according to its website, was founded to build on China’s success in staging the 2008 Beijing Olympics. It is claimed QSL has the backing of one of the biggest sovereign wealth funds in the Far East while the website says the company’s aim is “to expand China’s sporting platform through enhancing professional athleticism among the youth and elevating the nation’s direct involvement in the industry at an international level.”
Liverpool photocollage at the Anfield Stadium shop
Any new owners of Liverpool will be buying in to a rich footballing history
The latest part of that mission, it now seems, is to be achieved by paying £325m to buy Liverpool Football Club.
As they awoke to the news of Huang’s interest on Monday morning, Liverpool’s long-suffering supporters may have thought that maybe, just maybe, this is the one.
But would anyone who has followed the Liverpool ownership saga closely over the last three-and-a-bit years dare predict that this is going to reach a straightforward conclusion?
It is understood Huang’s bid is one of several – perhaps five or six – which were submitted last week to Liverpool’s chairman Martin Broughton and Barclays Capital, who were appointed on 16 April to handle the sale of the club.
Although it seemed the process was drifting over the summer, Broughton and Barclays Capital are aiming to make a final decision on a preferred bidder by the end of next week – just before the start of the new Premier League season.
All of which poses the question of why Huang has gone public with his interest now. His advisers have been briefing that he is the only show in town but, while he is acknowledged as a serious candidate, the idea he is the only one in the race is strongly contradicted by representatives acting for Liverpool and Barclays Capital.
As ever, this situation is made complicated by the fact that there are so many parties involved.
There’s Tom Hicks and George Gillett, who haven’t seen eye to eye for years except in their desire to secure as big a profit as possible from the sale of the club.
Then there’s Broughton and Barclays Capital, whose primary interest is in achieving not only the best price but also the most sustainable new owner of the club.
Royal Bank of Scotland, who are owed somewhere around £250m and who have deferred their loan to Hicks and Gillett until October, are also anxious to have their money back and are driving the sale. However, they are also anxious not to do anything in the current climate that would make our state-owned banks even more unpopular.
Finally, there’s the club itself, represented by managing director Christian Purslow and commercial director Ian Ayre. Their interest is in finding a buyer who will not only end the destabilising years of American ownership but find a way to fund a new stadium at Stanley Park and invest in a team which is out of the Champions League and in danger of losing its best players.
The biggest stumbling block to a swift deal at the moment is Hicks and Gillett. They paid £218m for the club in 2007 and, according to parties familiar with the sale process, invested a further £144m either as security on financing further loans, design and legal fees for the new stadium or on players and their salaries.
To break even on a sale the club would need to fetch a price of £362m. But given that most of the money they have invested in Liverpool has been from borrowings, it is debatable how much of that investment has come from their own funds. If Hicks and Gillett walk away with any profit, it will cause outrage among the club’s supporters and opponents of debt-financed football takeovers who argue they have seriously damaged Liverpool.
But this explains why they are holding out for a bigger price than the £325m on the table from Huang. It also explains why a Syrian businessman, Yahya Kirdi, emerged on the business pages of a Sunday newspaper yesterday as a possible buyer. He is said to be close to Gillett’s son and, while he has been confirmed as one of the five or six who lodged an interest last week, must be seen as a stalking horse to help drive up the price.
Given the series of possible investors who have been linked with buying into Liverpool in recent times – Dubai International Capital, the Rhone Group and the Al-Kharafi family from Kuwait to name just three – it would be wise to treat the latest developments with a degree of caution.
But it does seem that this affair is finally reaching the end game.
Source: BBC Sport
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