THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LONDON — Liverpool’s owners still hope to attract new investors before the end of the year and are on course to refinance the club’s loan by next month’s repayment deadline, an executive close to the situation said Tuesday.
Negotiations over a new agreement with Royal Bank of Scotland and Wachovia have been progressing for several months ahead of the July 24 repayment deadline and are close to completion, the executive said on condition of anonymity because the talks were ongoing.
A 350-million-pound (C$662 million), 12-month credit facility was agreed on with the financial institutions in January 2008. Those terms were extended in January for a further six months.
Now owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett are on the verge of securing an extension on new terms that will see them repay the outstanding amount of around 250 million pounds (C$472 million) more quickly.
Hicks is also still searching for new investors to help fund the 60,000-seat replacement stadium for Anfield and is confident of completing a deal by the end of 2009.
Key to that is Christian Purslow of private equity firm MidOcean Partners, who has joined the board as a director. The longtime Liverpool season ticket holder, who also worked for Credit Suisse First Boston working on mergers and acquisitions, is serving as the club’s managing director while the search for a replacement for chief executive Rick Parry continues.
Both Hicks and Gillett have been shoring up their financial positions in North America.
Gillett announced over the weekend that he was selling the NHL’s Montreal Canadiens back to the Molson brewing family.
Hicks is willing to give up control of baseball’s Texas Rangers if the right deal comes along, but intends to keep the NHL’s Dallas Stars. The holding company that owns the teams recently defaulted on about US$525 million in loans, though Hicks said that was an intentional move to help negotiate with banks.