Liverpool

Gelderdender · Guest

Liverpool's proposed debts may spark alarm

By David Bond

When Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr bought Liverpool in a £174 million deal in February, contrasts were immediately drawn with the Glazer family's takeover almost two years earlier at Scumchester United.

Here was another of English football's most revered institutions falling into the hands of American raiders. But unlike the Glazers, there was no campaign to try to stop Hicks and Gillett from acquiring Anfield. Instead, they were welcomed with open arms, as saviours of an underperforming club, who despite winning the Champions League in 2005, were desperate for new investment to help them win the Premiership.

However, the differences with the Glazers may be more difficult to spot in the future. Hicks and Gillett are now seeking to borrow at least £500 million to refinance the original loan used to buy the club, and to pay for the move to a new 76,000-seat stadium at Stanley Park.

When the Glazers borrowed a similar amount to purchase United - much of it from punitive hedge funds - the level of debt was used against them by their critics.

But the initial £298 million borrowing by Hicks and Gillett, split imto £185 million to buy Liverpool and £113 million as working capital, passed without too much comment.

"

The original loan from the Royal Bank of Scotland, which was personally guaranteed by the Americans, has to be repaid in Feb 2009 and currently attracts a hefty £21.5 million in annual interest.

Liverpool's owners now want to refinance those borrowings over a much longer term - secured, crucially, against the club's assets - and to roll that debt into the loans being used to pay for the stadium.

Given their ambitious business plans for the new ground and English football's booming television rights values, raising the money should have posed few difficulties. But that was before the global credit crunch started to bite, forcing banks to pull in their horns.

Liverpool, guided by their financial adviser Robert Tilliss from New York-based Inner Circle Sports, were close to approving a proposal from Goldman Sachs.

However, it is understood that in the last month Goldmans reviewed their offer, asking Hicks and Gillett to put in much more of their own money, thought to be around £100 million.

. In an attempt to calm any fears over the club's long-term business plans, Hicks told Inside Sport yesterday that the refinancing remained on track. But it is understood that Liverpool must provide assurances on the funding for their new stadium before plans go before Liverpool City Council on Oct 18.

Failure to do so could mean the project, which is due to start in the New Year and is supposed to be finished in 2010, is delayed.

Hicks said: "The lead on this is being handled by Inner Circle Sports. Through them we have been talking with a number of financial institutions including Goldman Sachs on the stadium financing.

"We have not reached any definitive conclusions yet but we are looking at a number of alternatives.

"The time-line for obtaining the final stadium finance package and our ability to commence construction, following approval by Liverpool City Council, calls for us to get started by early next year.Everything will be finalised long before then."

Tilliss said the club were considering long-term loans secured against future ticket revenue as well as shorter deals designed simply to pay for the construction of the new stadium. "The primary objective is the stadium planning," Tilliss said. "But we are also looking to put the acquisition debt on a more permanent footing. We are looking for the most innovative and flexible proposal."

With the clock ticking, Hicks, who owns Dallas Stars ice hockey team and is the financial muscle in the partnership with Gillett, must make a decision in the next 30 days.

A lot will depend on just how much he is prepared to put into the Liverpool project. But even if he does eventually agree to put in a large chunk of his own considerable fortune, Liverpool supporters are likely to react with alarm at the levels of debt now being piled onto their club.

A £500 million loan is 16 times Liverpool's operating profits for 2007, which are expected to reach the £30 million mark, thanks to their run to last season's Champions League final. In comparison, Scumchester United's borrowings are eight times their operating profits, while Arsenal's are four times. "Even by football's debt levels that is a heady figure," said one City analyst. Tilliss dismissed those calculations, saying the borrowings must be placed in the context of the revenues and operating profits that will be generated by the new stadium.

But, inevitably, Liverpool fans will begin to wonder whether Hicks and Gillett may have to bow to financial pressure and reverse their pledge not to copy the most hated Glazer innovation of them all - massive hikes in ticket prices.

cardboardbox?Youwerelucky · Posted: Fri Sep 07, 2007 12:41 pm Post subject:

How the fuck do you "borrow" £500 million against an operating profit of £30 million Shocked

Unbelieveable

One day all this is coming crashing down (not just liverpool but the whole football bubble) - what must the football industry be borrowing in total and what would happen if everything went tits up with TV rights Shocked

_________________

BOXYS BAR - LIQUER UP FRONT AND POKER IN THE REAR

NE1 · Neither Shallow Nor Sexist Joined: 15 May 2007 Posts: 1570

raveydavey · Posted: Fri Sep 07, 2007 7:14 pm Post subject:

The only reason this last lot of TV rights went for so much is because the EPL were forced by the EU to split the package available, meaning smaller operators like Setanta could challenge $ky for some of the live football.

$ky have had competition before - and remember what happened to BSB with their "squarials"?

$ky are in this for the long haul and have the financial muscle to see off competition. It will be interesting to see if they keep paying these huge sums of money if audiences drop, or the competition vanishes.

_________________

Shhhhhh! It's a secret:
Secret Leeds!

30 Mill · Posted: Fri Sep 07, 2007 10:33 pm Post subject:

You can buy or sell anything you want as long as there are buyers - So buying Cess is OK for 500Mill as long as you think you can increase its selling price to say 700Mill when you move on

The bit that is staggering is the INTEREST was 21 Mill

_________________
Remember children, the bigger your post count, the bigger your penis will be

1985 · Posted: Sat Sep 08, 2007 2:05 am Post subject:

Calm down la hey

_________________
Reporting Live From Dubai

	everythingleeds.myfastforum.org Forum Index -> General Sports	All times are GMT - 1 Hours
Page 1 of 1