Yanks trying to get refinance against Anfield, Players and future revenue

[d.k.E.]

RBS moves to force George Gillett and Tom Hicks to sell Liverpool | Football | The Guardian

[Captain]

I just hope RBS not only cocks the gun, but actually pulls the trigger when the time comes.

[navbasi]

More confirmation from bloomberg.....

 

Liverpool’s owners may struggle to get an extension on their 237-million pound ($366 million) loan after Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc moved the soccer club’s debt to its restructuring team, two people familiar with the situation said.

 

RBS agreed in April to extend the loan until Oct. 6 to give Americans George Gillett and Tom Hicks time to sell. By involving its restructuring team, the government-owned bank is signaling that it’s unlikely to give them further time and will probably take a role in finding a buyer, one of the people said. The two people declined to be identified because talks are continuing.

 

Hicks and Gillett bought the club in 2007 for 219 million pounds, including debt, and their holding group now has debts of 351 million pounds. The 18-time English champion failed to reach this year’s Champions League, which can add more than 30 million pounds in revenue. While Hicks in April said he wanted as much as 800 million pounds for the team, no bidder has approached the asking price.

 

“The roulette wheel stops spinning on Oct. 6,” said Stephen Schechter, founder and chief executive officer at Schechter & Co. in London, who has helped Newcastle, Southampton and Germany’s Schalke raise money.

 

Penalties

 

The loan extension had penalties for not selling the club by a deadline and the additional costs mean Kop Football (Holdings) Ltd, Liverpool’s parent company, owes about 260 million pounds to the bank, the people said.

 

Hicks and Gillett tried to refinance the debt with other lenders in June. Those attempts were blocked by board members Chairman Martin Broughton, Commercial Director Ian Ayre and Managing Director Christian Purslow.

 

Jonathan Brill, a spokesman for Hicks and Gillett, declined to comment. RBS Spokeswoman Aiofe Reynolds wasn’t able to immediately comment. The bank has faced protest from Liverpool’s supporters. They’ve sent thousands of e-mails to bank executives, including CEO Stephen Hester, urging them not to extend the Americans’ credit facility. Under the terms of the deal, RBS may take control of the club if a new buyer isn’t found by the time the debt matures.

 

Interested Parties

 

Prospective buyers were told they would have to pay off RBS debts in full, finance a new stadium and improve the squad. The people said RBS would now accept a down payment of between 100 million pounds and 150 million pounds with an agreement to pay the remainder of the loan down over a longer term.

 

Groups from India and Hong Kong linked with Liverpool have released statements saying they are no longer interested in bidding. Yahya Kirdi, a Canada-based Syrian investor, claims to represent a group interested in acquiring the team.

 

“If you were a prospective buyer, I would call RBS and say I’m interested in buying your loan,” Schechter said. “I would notify Gillett and Hicks that I’m the new lender and there will be no extensions, renewal or modifications of the loan: It is due and payable in full on Oct. 6. What that does is stop the game.”

 

In March, Hicks and Gillett turned down a 110-million pound offer from New York-based Rhone Group LLC for 40 percent of the club. The money would have been used to pay down the debt.

 

To contact the reporter on this story: Tariq Panja in London at at tpanja@bloomberg.net

[coop]

According to UEM on Twitter Stephen Hester is personally handling the Liverpool account.

[col06]

According to UEM on Twitter Stephen Hester is personally handling the Liverpool account.

 

Is that good or bad ???

[coop]

Well personally i would read it as the emails etc that he has recieved have obviously had an effect.

[Section_31]

Everyone move any change from your window sill and put your wallet in your front pockets. We must do everything to prevent these ubermongs from getting a single penny more.

 

The jarg scarf sellers need to step their game up.

[Section_31]

With RBS being Government backed and the Tories not wanting to shell out cash anymore, maybe someone should have words with Michael Howard. He may have something of the night about him, but who cares?

[Barrington Womble]

With RBS being Government backed and the Tories not wanting to shell out cash anymore, maybe someone should have words with Michael Howard. He may have something of the night about him, but who cares?

 

that's been tried, he pretty much doesn't want to know.

[edge of darknes]

While this is good news (about RBS) I've got some reservations about a sale at a 'knock down' price even if that does cover the debt.

 

We need a 'quality' buyer to buy the club not, the first or more shysters, who could now afford to buy us.

 

I hope that even though a sale may go through at a 'knock down' price, broughton and co can still influence who the best likely buyer would be.

 

We do not want to jump out of the frying pan into the fire. This may be our only chance to stop the rot the americans have wrought on the club.

[Ponz]

An informed view from another source close to the situation is that the bank would hope to sell the club, possibly at a knockdown price, in the coming weeks or as soon possible after 6 October.

 

One tool at RBS's disposal is to force the insolvency of Liverpool's UK parent and associated companies. It is clear from mortgage documents lodged with Companies House that in the event of default RBS has the power to place Kop Football and Kop Football (Holdings), as well as Gillett's loan-security vehicle, Football UK Ltd, into administration. However that would be unpalatable for the bank, Liverpool's board and the Premier League since it would require the imposition of a nine-point penalty on the club.

 

How exactly would RBS seize control of the sales process without foreclosing on the parent company? Threatening to enforce G&H's personal guarantees seems a plausible strategy but the Guardian doesn't explicitly make that point.

[shaunstrudwick]

RBS moves to force George Gillett and Tom Hicks to sell Liverpool | Football | The Guardian

 

this article is very encouraging :)

[Arl arse]

Andy Hunter guardian.co.uk, Thursday 9 September 2010 21.32 BST

 

Until Tom Hicks and George Gillett are officially consigned to Liverpool history, there will be no dancing around the streets of Anfield at reports of their imminent demise. Imminent will not suffice for supporters more accustomed to refinancing deals than record signings since the Americans arrived in February 2007 with promises to put spades in the ground, to manage debt and to sit on the Kop once fans accepted them as true custodians of a rich tradition. There may not be the energy for the send-off they deserve when it is all over.News that the Royal Bank of Scotland is preparing to cancel £237.4m worth of debt next month, thereby ending Hicks's and Gillett's involvement in Liverpool and costing the credit-crunched businessmen a fortune, raises hope among the club's support that the end is indeed nigh. Another uncertain period awaits while a buyer is found, but the Americans' track record of resisting pressure from the banks, the Middle East, fellow directors, a former manager and the financial opinions of prized footballers to remain in control ensures judgment on a state-owned Liverpool must be reserved.Doubt over the future of Liverpool will not lessen the significance of the co-owners' exit, however, whenever that comes. Hicks and Gillett have been accused of a litany of failure by the numerous protest groups they have unwittingly created. Some of the charges – such as never putting their own money into the club – are imagined; most – the stadium, the debt, transfers, undermining Rafael Benítez and their own dysfunctionality – are real. Alienating a mass fanbase from their club would also be high on that list.

 

That Liverpudlians cannot identify with a fundraiser for George W Bush (Hicks) is no surprise, nor a fundamental reason for the anger today, but an interminable saga of financial misery and broken promises has dismantled the traditions they vowed to protect. It is not simply that they have handicapped Liverpool as the club that "existed to win trophies" by making a profit on player-trading for the past two years. It is that for many – and yes, this does sound trite – the fun has gone.As the MP for Walton, Steve Rotheram, whose constituency covers Anfield, said this week when calling for greater supporter ownership at all levels of the game: "Look at what's happened at Anfield. The fans there do not feel engaged. The owners have seen the supporters as part of the problem instead of the solution." They still do, and the removal of Benítez this summer illustrates that also applies to management level.Gérard Houllier's return to English football with Aston Villa provides a reminder of how little and everything has changed about Liverpool since the need for new investment prompted former chairman David Moores to accept the Americans' £5,000 per share offer. Houllier spent years bemoaning Liverpool's inability to compete financially with Manchester United and Chelsea (though Arsenal's achievements at that time always undermined his argument) and was sacked after an alarming dip in form, bad buys and with Liverpool fearing they could be cut adrift while losing the services of two disillusioned stars – Michael Owen and Steven Gerrard.

 

Replace Owen with Fernando Torres this summer and the parallels are clear yet, even though the calls for Houllier's removal far exceeded those for Benítez, Liverpool's support is now politicised like never before. Instead of bridging the gap, Hicks and Gillett have cut Liverpool adrift – from title contention, the Champions League and from the faithful. Hicks hoped to win the latter back by ceding to Benítez's demands on his last, powerful contract at Anfield, but he had no chance.Offering Jürgen Klinsmann a European Cup-winning manager's job turned the tide of public opinion against the co-owners, but a bigger mistake was to redraw plans for a new 60,000-capacity stadium on Stanley Park within weeks of their takeover. It was pre-credit crunch, and planning permission and European funding was in place for a stadium that was estimated to cost £215m.The American dream of bigger and better then got in the way. Hicks wanted his own architects to create a grander vision (or cash cow) for 72,000 spectators. Gillett objected but not forcefully enough, and their business relationship began to deteriorate just as the financial storm approached. Only a succession of short-term refinancing packages, under increasingly stringent conditions, have maintained their grip on Liverpool to this point, but at a cost beyond what they stand to lose should the RBS assume control.

 

"We didn't come here to milk the franchise or the club, we are here to try and build a winning tradition on what is already a winning tradition," said Gillett on the day he first set foot inside Anfield. "I don't think it is appropriate for me or Tom to try to convince the fans we understand the sport, the history or the traditions as well as they do. But respect is what we genuinely feel about the history and legacy of this franchise. I hope we can earn the respect of the fans. Give us a few years and then measure us."The verdict was returned long ago. And they never did buy Snoogy-Doogy.

[Malarkey]

Die you pair of cunts.

[Spy Bee]

How exactly would RBS seize control of the sales process without foreclosing on the parent company? Threatening to enforce G&H's personal guarantees seems a plausible strategy but the Guardian doesn't explicitly make that point.

 

Selling the debt would be the most straightforward way.

[Dan Vito Corleone]

Heard all this before. The pressure needs to be kept up.

[gmac]

Don’t know if anyone else feels the same but at the moment can’t be arsed with LFC, it’s not the Liverpool I know, manager whose a nice bloke but not a Liverpool manager, tossers in all management roles,the two evil fucks as owners and to top it all a fuckwitted support, won’t even watch the game on Sunday, these two fucks have brought it to that, last hope is October 6th and no refinance.

[thechap]

Don’t know if anyone else feels the same but at the moment can’t be arsed with LFC, it’s not the Liverpool I know, manager whose a nice bloke but not a Liverpool manager, tossers in all management roles,the two evil fucks as owners and to top it all a fuckwitted support, won’t even watch the game on Sunday, these two fucks have brought it to that, last hope is October 6th and no refinance.

 

With the exception of the unfair criticism of Uncle Roy, I agree with you

[d.k.E.]

Brilliant article in today's Guardian - puts all the pressure group arguments across but in a rational, objective way...

 

Liverpool fans won't be happy until American owners have gone for good| Andy Hunter | Football | The Guardian

[JMARKH]

I just hope RBS not only cocks the gun, but actually pulls the trigger when the time comes.

 

and blow their fuckin brains all over the floor.;)

[Randy Marsh]

Hunter has written a brilliant piece there.

 

The ball is rolling now, the pressure has cranked up a notch but the momentum mustn't be allowed to drop. The ECHO should be running this as front page news in the coming weeks, that's where it should start from. Every day it's packed full of shite about little drug dealing scrotums shooting eachother and other such toss, yet not a fuckin word on the city's biggest export. Not a word on how the Anfield area is degenerating and stagnating whilst the stadium process drags on in to it's tenth year with not a brick laid, and so on. There are so many angles they could take to up the pressure. I rarely read the ECHO these days anyway, it's gone right down the pan IMO. But at one of the most crucial stages in our history with our own future threatened, we are not reading a word from them whilst the nationals are all over it, Maddock, Smith, Barret, Evans etc. It's shite.

[WaltonRed]

call me a sceptic but people try to get an ad in the paper and this comes out.

 

we need to keep up the pressure.

[Jim MM]

call me a sceptic but people try to get an ad in the paper and this comes out.

 

we need to keep up the pressure.

 

Is right. Now that there seems to be a bit of momentum gathering we need to keep pushing. It only takes one pig-headed public utterance from Hicks to deflate the optimism.

[longtimered]

Are people as underwhelmed as I am by the low profile/leadership of SOS on this specific issue of the deadline?I would have thought a major campaign was of the utmost importance.

[birkenhead]

 

By Harry Harris, Football Correspondent

 

September 10, 2010

 

Friday's 'revelations' that George Gillett and Tom Hick's reign as co-owners of Liverpool is close to an end after the club's loans with Royal Bank of Scotland were placed into its toxic-assets division has been known for some time.

 

•

The unpopular American duo have faced being ousted by the RBS ever since proposed takeovers of the Anfield club failed to materialise before the transfer window closed. The bank have been treating the American owners' £237 million debt as 'toxic' for a number of weeks.

However, an insider into Liverpool's affairs reacted to the 'toxic' debt reports in Friday's newspapers by commenting to Soccernet: "As far as I can tell this is not new; whether it will prove to be of much significance in the wider scheme of things remains to be seen."

Soccernet has been told that the way RBS are treating the debt was part of the process that led to the appointment of new club chairman Martin Broughton and Barcap with a view to selling Liverpool.

The big issue is what RBS actually do on October 6 when the deadline for re-financing the debt runs out. The smart money is that RBS will take control of the club and sell at a knock-down price, taking a big hit on their £237 million loan.

City experts have already told Soccernet that they value Liverpool at that stage at £150 million, and maybe even less, as any new owner has to take on a £400 million new stadium project as well as investing in the team.

Best news I've heard this week.