Kenny Huang linked to Liverpool takeover

[zigackly]

Any ideas about how Tom and George's 100m Cayman "investment" at 10% per annum would be affected? Presumably they'll be able to call that in.

 

Not if the bank took us into administration and the club was sold for around RBS's exposure of £237M, as they are the primary creditors. However I don't think it will get that far and I expect RBS and Huang would go to them with a deal paying some or all of that Cayman loan back as a compromise. Maybe even with a sweetener on top. It sounds to me as if they are not prepared to negotiate down to a viable price so a hostile bid is being prepared to try to force their hands. If the arab chap is all the owners have up their sleeve then happy days.

 

Problem with all this, is it's getting me hopeful again. I just can't seem to get my spirit to properly break and have done with it.

[The Dude Abides]

What would be the chances that any other bank out there would give the Yanks a new loan? They'd have to be mad right? And wouldn't that be their only way out of this, if RBS do indeed call in that loan?

[zigackly]

I think anyone lending Hicks and Gillett money at the moment would have to be certifiably insane. They can't service the interest on the loans they have indefinitely and unless there are serious buyers at the table for a higher price any lender would be unlikely to get their money back without resorting to something similar down the line.

[Jim MM]

Cheers Zig. I'm out of rep for you but that makes me feel better.

[zigackly]

I just hope the story and the interest from the Chinese is serious because if it is then it sounds very much like an endgame scenario. My assumption is that this is happening because the owners won't negotiate at a reasonable price and to talk to these bidders RBS must be pretty confident they hold all the cards. I'm not sure why it's being leaked though. I would love to know who told the press.

[Chinandeler Bong]

Dont believe any of it, same old same old.

[Jose Jones]

It will be in the Times ripoff site who will sue the arse off you if you copy and paste it. Pretty much the end of Tony Barrett articles on here, that.

 

Unless they syndicate it in The Australian of course:

 

Chinese tycoon targets Liverpool | The Australian

 

Chinese tycoon targets Liverpool

Tony Evans, Tony Barrett From: The Times August 02, 2010 9:14AM

 

A CHINESE tycoon has emerged as a potential owner of the Liverpool Football Club in England.

 

Kenny Huang, who is partnered by one of the biggest sovereign wealth funds in Asia, is determined to wrest control from Tom Hicks and George Gillett. Hicks and Gillett took over three years ago in a leveraged buyout. They owe the Royal Bank of Scotland about £237 million.

 

Huang is negotiating with the RBS. Last month, Huang also approached key figures at Anfield to emphasise the seriousness of the bid in an attempt to forestall a summer exodus of players.

 

Star player Fernando Torres, who reports back to training today, will be asked to delay any decision on his future until the outcome of the takeover bid is known.

 

Liverpool has been up for sale since April, when the American owners appointed Martin Broughton, the British Airways chairman, to oversee any deal. However, last week, no viable bidder had come forward and Broughton has not moved the process on.

 

Hicks has consistently quoted an asking price of £800 million. However, business analysts say £325 million is a more reasonable figure.

 

The approach by Huang guarantees RBS the repayment of the vast majority of the loan because the bid guarantees to clear Liverpool's debt.

 

Huang, who was first linked with a buyout at Liverpool two years ago, has an impressive track record as head of QSL Sports Limited, a Hong Kong-based investment company. He was instrumental in taking Yao Ming, the basketball superstar, to the Houston Rockets in the NBA.

 

Sources close to Huang said that he was eager to push the Liverpool deal through to make use of the transfer window. Roy Hodgson, the manager, would be given funds to add to a squad that dropped out of the top four and the Champions League places last season.

 

As well as generating revenue, Huang plans to build a new stadium as quickly as possible. The Americans made a similar promise in February 2007, pledging that ground would be broken on the Stanley Park site within 60 days, but work has still not started.

[Jim MM]

Dont believe any of it, same old same old.

 

Maybe so, maybe no. I'm going on a pre-season, clean slate buzz. I've had a bellyfull of misery from football for the last year and I'm ready to be optimistic that we will get rid of the parasites and that we will win every game we play. I don't fancy feeling suicidal at the moment.

[lifetime fan]

It will be in the Times ripoff site who will sue the arse off you if you copy and paste it. Pretty much the end of Tony Barrett articles on here, that.

 

The FT operate in a similar way and their articles are posted all the time.

 

Give it a few more weeks and there will be a fair few websites showing Times articles.

[Alan Sex]

I'd trade in 2 big Yankee dicks for a little Chinese Huang any day!

[thekid]

 

SUCK ON DEEZ CHINESE NUUUUUUUTZ

 

hahah thats the exact picture i thought of when i read the guys name hahahah

 

toodaloooo mother fuckerrrsssss

[llego]

Fucking pray this is true. Notice how the article mentions no serious auction bids have materialized and that Fernando is waiting on the outcome. This is well and truly our only hope.

[lifetime fan]

Fernando Torres returns to training at Liverpool today with the club poised on the brink of a controversial hostile takeover bid by a Chinese businessman, which may profoundly affect the player's thinking about his future.

 

 

Kenny Huang, who is believed to be backed by Chinese state-owned investment funds, first approached Liverpool during the World Cup to indicate that he was making his bid and to say that players such as Torres should be aware of the potential investment before deciding on their futures. Torres was briefed on the approach some time ago and will be encouraged, on his return to Melwood to await the outcome of discussions between the tycoon and Royal Bank of Scotland.

 

But the club's owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett may not be receptive to a bid – which envisages Huang guaranteeing the repayment of most of the £237m debt amassed by the Americans – because they would stand to make little out of the sale. Suggestions yesterday that the Syrian businessman Yahya Kirdi may be ready to make a £400m offer for the club, the same buyer who surfaced in April in a rash of publicity that came to nothing, appear nothing more than a smokescreen to fend off an imminent hostile bid.

 

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Huang has been linked to Liverpool several times before, in 2008 when he felt the £650m asking price was too high and again this April, when he sought to play down the rumours which leaked out, though he did not deny them. A former Wall Street broker, he has set up many investment and financing projects between Chinese and American companies, partnering many large Chinese state-owned enterprises in the deals and making substantial profits on the back of the Chinese economic boom.

 

His business partners are understood to include Les Alexander, owner of the NBA Houston Rockets, an association which has led him to take the Chinese basketball star Yao Ming to the Rockets, and through his SportsPro Media China company he has delivered Chinese sponsors to the New York Yankees. He co-owns a percentage of the Yankees and recently bought a share of the Cleveland Cavaliers basket ball team recently.

 

Football would be a new development. With a valuation on Liverpool far lower than the £600-800m which owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks have placed on it, Heung's battle to take over the club so quickly that he and his backers can spend before the transfer window closes may not be straightforward. Torres may find his patience tried again.

 

The Americans may be left with no choice but to accept by RBS, who have the prerogative to order them to sell, three months after agreeing an extension of their£237m debt facility. That agreement, beyond an initial deadline of June to an as-yet unspecified date, came after the Americans attempted to appease RBS by appointing the British Airways chairman Martin Broughton as a temporary non-executive chairman, to oversee the sale of the club.

 

Since the time of the appointment of Broughton, who said in April that the sale of the club may take "a few months", there appears to have still been an underlying tension between the Americans' desire to secure a profit on the initial £220m they invested in their leveraged buyout in February 2007 and the bank's desire for new investors to reduce that debt substantially through new investment.

 

The New York-based Rhone Group came in with a £100m offer earlier this year but having withdrawn it when the deadline imposed by the finance house expired, their representatives claimed the Americans had been unwilling to allow the group a controlling share in the club for that price. RBS were willing to see that investor go, but the Americans are unlikely to be allowed to refuse many – if any – more injections of cash as they maintain their push for what the investment community sees as an unrealistic price for a club worth £350m at best.

 

A buy-out would deliver Liverpool into a new, promised land. Heung is believed to be ready to finance the stadium to unlock Liverpool's financial future.

 

If a sale looks likely, it will surely satisfy Torres, though his patience with the owners may wear thin if he feels that another chance of a fresh start under new owners has gone begging and he may be tempted by Chelsea or Manchester City. Liverpool are expected to bid around £2.5m this week in an attempt to bring the manager Roy Hodgson's former left back Paul Konchesky to Anfield from Fulham.

 

 

Torres returns as Chinese bid to take control at Anfield - Premier League, Football - The Independent

[llego]

Can anyone who knows anything about the finance industry tell us if this is likely to go through in a reasonable amount of time?

[RedinSweden]

I have a very bad feeling that if this fails due to the owners cocking I up, things could turn properly nasty for them. Maybe they have been playing hardball so that they can still negotiate a sweetener if this sort of bid came in. I don't know enough abou these things, but seeing a genuine bid collapse, from a group that could fund the stadium, would be too much for people to take. If this end of July deadline is true then RBS have to be seen to be being hard on them or they will also be the subject of negative attention.

 

I have no idea what these new bidders are like, but they sound way better than our owners. This could either be the start of something good or the start of things getting truly ugly. I hope it is the former.

[llego]

Only thing I don't like about this Huang guy is the Chinese state-controlled investment backing. The Chinese state sucks. A lot.

 

Sorry for the constant perkinesque posting, Im excited.

[WaltonRed]

And the American state doesnt does it?

 

Really hope this is actually the start of something.

[Barrington Womble]

I'll believe rbs will do something about this when I see it. If rbs were this in control, they'd have taken the money months ago.

[WaltonRed]

Liverpool Echo - News - Liverpool Local News - Chinese businessman 'in bid for Reds'

[llego]

And the American state doesnt does it?

 

Really hope this is actually the start of something.

 

1) Hicks & Gillete did not get their financial backing from the American state

 

2) The Chinese state is a hell of a lot worse and the fact that you dont think thats obvious is pretty ridiculous

[WaltonRed]

1) Hicks & Gillete did not get their financial backing from the American state

 

2) The Chinese state is a hell of a lot worse and the fact that you dont think thats obvious is pretty ridiculous

 

1. Didnt say they did.

 

2. Didnt give any sort of indication on levels of who's worse than who did I?

[Jose Jones]

1. Didnt say they did.

 

2. Didnt give any sort of indication on levels of who's worse than who did I?

 

Well then what was the purpose of your post muchacho?

[WaltonRed]

Well then what was the purpose of your post muchacho?

 

Just the hypocrisy of a Yank having a go at the Chinese when they are far from ideal themselves, thats all.

[Jose Jones]

Just the hypocrisy of a Yank having a go at the Chinese when they are far from ideal themselves, thats all.

 

So you'd have a pop at Chomsky then if he criticised the Chinese government yeah?

 

 

EDIT: Sorry Walton, got a bit narky there, dunno why. Fuggetaboutit.

[Kopite Pete]

Please be true.