Investor opens up on Liverpool offer
Source: Agencies |
August 7, 2010, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
A CHINA-BASED group of investors said yesterday that Liverpool has welcomed its initial plans to take over the Premier League club.
Marc Ganis, whose Chicago-based company Sportscorp Ltd has helped form the investment group co-headed by Chinese businessman Kenneth Huang, said the group first contacted Liverpool chairman Martin Broughton on Monday.
"We haven't submitted a formal proposal but we submitted the broad parameters of what a proposal would look like to see if it would be welcomed, and it was," Ganis said.
A company called QSL Sports Limited would be controlling owner. QSL is co-headed by Huang and Guang Yang, executive vice president of Franklin Templeton Investments and chief investment officer of the China Life/Franklin Templeton Fund.
Ganis said those two would be the only owners involved in the management of the club. Other investors would be passive, and each would own no more than 20 percent.
China Investment Corp -- the country's sovereign wealth fund -- would not have a direct ownership stake in the club. However, Ganis said it may be part of an investment vehicle organized by Yang and his financial team that would have a passive ownership interest.
Ganis contacted the Royal Bank of Scotland, which holds Liverpool's debt, and was put in contact last week with Broughton and Barclays Capital, which is attempting to sell the club for the co-owners.
Tom Hicks, whose MLB team the Texas Rangers were auctioned this week in US Bankruptcy Court in Fort Worth, bought Liverpool with George Gillett Jr three years ago in a deal valued at 218.9 million pounds (then US$431 million). Hicks said he wants between 600 and 800 million pounds for the club, whose known debt last stood at 237 million pounds.
Ganis said his group will not bid close to Hicks' valuation.
"If anybody wants to, good luck," he said, without disclosing what his group is willing to bid. "We know what we would be prepared to do. If somebody else wants to look at it in a different way, it's their money. That would be their business, not ours."
"What is not one of our goals is the enrichment of the existing owners," Ganis said,
"If we submit a proposal and it is accepted, it would be focused on the future and not the past."
Marc Ganis, whose Chicago-based company Sportscorp Ltd has helped form the investment group co-headed by Chinese businessman Kenneth Huang, said the group first contacted Liverpool chairman Martin Broughton on Monday.
"We haven't submitted a formal proposal but we submitted the broad parameters of what a proposal would look like to see if it would be welcomed, and it was," Ganis said.
A company called QSL Sports Limited would be controlling owner. QSL is co-headed by Huang and Guang Yang, executive vice president of Franklin Templeton Investments and chief investment officer of the China Life/Franklin Templeton Fund.
Ganis said those two would be the only owners involved in the management of the club. Other investors would be passive, and each would own no more than 20 percent.
China Investment Corp -- the country's sovereign wealth fund -- would not have a direct ownership stake in the club. However, Ganis said it may be part of an investment vehicle organized by Yang and his financial team that would have a passive ownership interest.
Ganis contacted the Royal Bank of Scotland, which holds Liverpool's debt, and was put in contact last week with Broughton and Barclays Capital, which is attempting to sell the club for the co-owners.
Tom Hicks, whose MLB team the Texas Rangers were auctioned this week in US Bankruptcy Court in Fort Worth, bought Liverpool with George Gillett Jr three years ago in a deal valued at 218.9 million pounds (then US$431 million). Hicks said he wants between 600 and 800 million pounds for the club, whose known debt last stood at 237 million pounds.
Ganis said his group will not bid close to Hicks' valuation.
"If anybody wants to, good luck," he said, without disclosing what his group is willing to bid. "We know what we would be prepared to do. If somebody else wants to look at it in a different way, it's their money. That would be their business, not ours."
"What is not one of our goals is the enrichment of the existing owners," Ganis said,
"If we submit a proposal and it is accepted, it would be focused on the future and not the past."
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