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LFC, BarCap and Re-Financing


SpiritOfShankly
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LFC, BarCap and Re-Financing

Friday 17th September 2010

 

 

The Spirit of Shankly Supporters' Union have received information regarding Barclays Capital and the state of Liverpool Football Club's finances over the Summer of 2010. While the original copy document is not in the Union's possession, a full and accurate copy of it has been made.

 

The document throws up many questions about the public messages coming from Martin Broughton, the Club and Barclays Capital underlining again that Liverpool Football Club teeters on the edge of a financial abyss.

 

From the documents the Spirit of Shankly have gleaned the following main points:

 

 

•Up until at least the beginning of August, if Barcap were indeed serious about seeking a buyer they had also been seeking to re-finance the debt. So much so that they refer to approaching around 25 potential investors.

 

•The Executive Directors (Broughton, Purslow and Ayre) sought advice from Slaughter and May (a large international legal practice) concerning whether re-financing by RBS should be approved in light of their fiduciary responsibilities. Their duties as Directors are to act in the interests of the club. The club in this instance is Hicks and Gillett. Their appears to be legal argument about how they can act in the best interests of the club and therefore the shareholders, considering the circumstances.

 

 

•On the basis of Slaughter and May's advice, BarCap subsequently made an amended re-financing proposal. It is not clear from this document whether that amendment was sufficient for Slaughter and May to have since indicated that the changes were sufficient to allay the Executive Directors' reservations.

 

•The firms identified as being willing to be involved in re-financing the Club’s debt are identified as FBR, Beach Point, Halcyon, Blackrock, DK Partners, Stonetower, Trimaran, DE Shaw, Avenue, Centrebridge and GSO.

 

•In the period July to August the Club’s debt was increased in the following sums:

15/07/2010 Ticking Fee: £5.0m

 

15/08/2010 Ticking Fee: £7.5m

 

31/08/2010 Ticking Fee: £7.5m

 

PIK Increase (Aug): £0.8m

 

 

 

Total: £20.8m

 

 

 

 

•The sum currently required to re-finance the Club is £300m. However, this can be reduced to £187.5m through using the proceeds of a £75m loan to the holding company in Delaware and by rolling £37.5m into the proposed loan for the new stadium. This plan for securing debt against the as yet unbuilt stadium, means should the stadium finally come to fruition, revenue it generates would contribute towards the ownership debt as opposed to its construction.

 

 

•FBR propose to lend £75m to Kop Delaware. Delaware is a "deregulated" haven in the USA, along the same lines as Cayman. As such, it would not be unreasonable to think that a similar mechanism to the Kop Cayman loan could take place in due course, i.e. Kop Delaware could "lend" this money to LFC. (FBR is a top ten rated US investment bank)

The questions that this document raises, among others, are:

 

•Why did Martin Broughton say the club would be sold "before the end of the transfer season" when BarCap were proposing re-financing "solutions" until at least the end of July?

 

•Did the changes proposed by BarCap , in line with Slaughter & May's advice, sufficiently address the Executive Directors' questions regarding their fiduciary responsibilities, and as a result prevent them from using this argument to continue to stop re-financing?

 

•In light of the apparent position that the Executive Directors appear to have powers vested in them by means of conditions attached to the RBS debt, what would the position of the Executive Directors be if either or both of the owners could raise sufficient to debt to repay RBS?

 

•Could they refuse to allow RBS to be repaid? Would RBS accept payment with the result of removing the current powers apparently held by the Executive Directors?

 

•So, the major question to be answered is are Barcap currently engaged with any prospective buyers or is it pursuing a re-financing or both?

The document is clearly very technical and for Spirit of Shankly members and supporters it is another in a long line of pieces of information that make little sense to the average supporter. We feel it is in supporters' best interests to be aware of this information, and we will endeavour to keep you fully updated of any further developments, along with our plans for action to follow on from recent developments.

 

 

The Spirit of Shankly are urging the senior management of LFC to engage with the supporters in using the supporters who are the only solution to this problem. We will be ensuring that those at LFC are fully aware of our views and we will be planning for all potential outcomes.

 

 

RBS need to bring this issue to a close as far as they can, without leaving a vacuum behind. They will not be forgiven, after bleeding the Club for two years or more, if they do not also take steps to secure Liverpool Football Club’s long term future.

 

The Spirit of Shankly has proposed action by supporters following its EGM on the 25th September 2010 .

 

In addition Spirit of Shankly-Share LiverpoolFC are seeking to engage in the sale process and this information merely underlines again that it is the supporters and only the supporters who can solve this problem.

 

We urge the Club, RBS and Barclays Capital to recognise our solution and work together to save our Club.

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me too, direct action must be on the way,

enough is enough

 

12 months ago ,a group of fans were trying to take over our small home town club.The decision was made to stage a on pitch protest 2 minutes into a televised game.The threat was enough to get the FA to the table.

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If he/they get the re-finance, we are really fucked. Broughton has a lot to answer for, the lying bastard. The apathetic majority need to wake up, we are going the way of Leeds. Horrible fucking shysters the lot of them. RBS are only in this for RBS.

 

The only ones with the love of the club at heart is the supporters

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I've said a few times now. Supporters are going to have to go on to the pitch and stage a sit down protest.

 

I'm a part owner of Cork City,and the club was in dire straits,minutes from being wound up.The fans group,after much bullshit by the owner decided that a sit down protest in the centre circle after kick off would be the next step in getting rid of the owner.Once the media heard of the plans,the FA were in touch within a hour ,and sent their top 3 men down for a sit down meeting that same night which ultimatly brought a end to the owners tenure,and put the club 100% in the supporters hands.The very threat of it was enough.Multiply that by a thousand for the world wide global entity that is LFC and the TV stations across the globe would be up in arms trying to stop any encroachments on their schedules.Massive massive publicity

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The only ones with the love of the club at heart is the supporters

 

Well I'll be blowed. You'll be telling us H&G are in it for the money next.

 

You're talking about businessmen and corporate entities. Their primary objective is to make a profit, or a living, and develop or at least maintain the profitability of their business.

The best we can hope for, now and in the future, is that those objectives align to a greater degree with our objectives as fans. I believe that Broughton's objectives and priorities are broadly aligned with our own; i.e. to find a buyer who is willing (highly likely to be for profit rather than the love of the club) to invest in the squad and a new stadium.

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I'm a part owner of Cork City,and the club was in dire straits,minutes from being wound up.The fans group,after much bullshit by the owner decided that a sit down protest in the centre circle after kick off would be the next step in getting rid of the owner.Once the media heard of the plans,the FA were in touch within a hour ,and sent their top 3 men down for a sit down meeting that same night which ultimatly brought a end to the owners tenure,and put the club 100% in the supporters hands.The very threat of it was enough.Multiply that by a thousand for the world wide global entity that is LFC and the TV stations across the globe would be up in arms trying to stop any encroachments on their schedules.Massive massive publicity
This is my reply from another thread but its fits you're post.....As soon as somebody suggests something three people will agree and another four will say it wont work/disagree with it all together etc its been going on on the forums for ages and thats why nothing gets done. It'll take something drastic for the nay sayers to say 'Yes fuck it i've had enough im in' by that time the damage will have been done, im fucking sick of it all!
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shock horror.

 

October 6th will pass with a whimper.

 

 

Are people starting to come to terms with this on these boards now? a couple of months ago, I said they'd be here in 12 months time and got slaughtered for it. For those who were adamant I was wrong, where are you now? Still trust in Broughton? He, like Cecil is a lap-dog for H & G.

 

Full Boycotting is the way forward, a sit-in on the half-way line before the match is also a great idea. The bottom line is, stop buying match tickets, season tickets, shirts, scarfs etc.

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Let's fucking do it then instead of talking about it.

 

Sunderland home next Saturday, we decide a time (just before kick off) to calmly leave our seats and make our way on to the pitch towards the director's box and let the sit down protest commence.

 

Sunderland !!!! For fucks sake,have some imagination man.Needs to be high profile,Mancs or Chavs etc and it needs to be done en masse so it'll take more than one dude on a forum saying "lets do it".I'm sure SoS will have looked at the option or will be at the next EGM

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I believe that Broughton's objectives and priorities are broadly aligned with our own; i.e. to find a buyer who is willing (highly likely to be for profit rather than the love of the club) to invest in the squad and a new stadium.

 

You're changing your tune aren't you? I don't know how may times you said the club would be sold earlier than most supporters thought and no later than September, October, November 2010 (you kept changing the goalposts). As usual you delivered these predictions with the air of someone who was ITK just as you try to imply that you have direct knowledge of the club that supports your agenda driven sneering against Rafa and some players.

 

You don't know anybody at the club, you have no direct knowledge of the potential sale and refinancing - you`re what my mother would call a gaseous gossiper.

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Sunderland !!!! For fucks sake,have some imagination man.Needs to be high profile,Mancs or Chavs etc and it needs to be done en masse so it'll take more than one dude on a forum saying "lets do it".I'm sure SoS will have looked at the option or will be at the next EGM

 

Might want to check our fixture list pal. October 6th is D-day, before that our only home league games are Sunderland and Blackpool and Northampton in the League Cup. Chelsea is November 6th, a month after the re-finance deadline. The EGM is next Saturday, 11 days before the re-finance deadline. Can you see why I am keen that we do this asap? The main item on SOS's agenda at the moment is to keep RBS sweet. If you check other forums there is some concern by members (myself being one) at their current approach and why they are not supporting the e-mail campaigns to Hester at RBS and the other re-finacing companies that Cancer & Aids have approached.

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Sunderland !!!! For fucks sake,have some imagination man.Needs to be high profile,Mancs or Chavs etc and it needs to be done en masse so it'll take more than one dude on a forum saying "lets do it".I'm sure SoS will have looked at the option or will be at the next EGM

 

Yep. And what a sign it would give. It would have to be a very peaceful protest though. The press would be waiting to pounce.

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I believe that Broughton's objectives and priorities are broadly aligned with our own; i.e. to find a buyer who is willing (highly likely to be for profit rather than the love of the club) to invest in the squad and a new stadium.

 

Why did Martin Broughton say the club would be sold "before the end of the transfer season" when BarCap were proposing re-financing "solutions" until at least the end of July?

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