Liverpool takeover: Why it’s not over yet

The twists and turns in the Liverpool sale saga show no sign of abating.

On Wednesday the sale of the club to the owners of the Boston Red Sox baseball team NESV looked a done deal. Then co-owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett persuaded a court in Texas to issue an order blocking the sale. Yesterday the High Court in London demolished Hicks and Gillett’s Texas move – the judge called it “unconscionable” and threw it out.

Think its all over? It isn’t.

But the pair are still trying to thwart that already-agreed but not actioned sale of the club. They don’t like the price tag – £300million – because it would represent bad business for them. They bought Liverpool in 2007 for £174million, serviced its debts and the refinancing over 3 years and think it is now worth a lot more money.

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Restraining order
Today they have apparently voluntarily dropped the Texas sale restraining order but have only done so because Hicks is still trying to sell his stake to the US hedge fund Mill Financial, which already owns Gillett’s stake in Liverpool. Hence the Texas legal move – in which they claimed to be on the receiving end of a “swindle of epic proportions”.

If Hicks sells to Mill, then the hedge fund could and would pay off the club’s bank debt – £237 million owed to the Royal Bank of Scotland – at a stroke scuppering the Red Sox sale and removing the threat of the club going into administration and being docked nine points. It would leave Mill Financial in control of Liverpool Football Club and that could mean the option of a sale to new owners, not to NESV.

NESV
But – and its a huge but – Liverpool chairman Martin Broughton is confident his sale to NESV owner J.W Henry – who is in London and has been attending dozens of lawyers meetings – will prevail.

NESV has the lead in this saga and the backing not only of the chairman and the board but also, crucially, the club’s main creditor, RBS.

That sale, if unblocked by the Mill manoeverings and any unknown further legal challenges, could also mean the nine points docked threat and administration would be bought off. This afternoon more details will emerge, more footballing analogies will be drawn.

The club’s new manager Roy Hodgson and possibly the players will face the press shortly ahead of Sunday’s high profile Liverpool-Everton derby match, they too will be drawn into the melee.

Think its all over? It isn’t. And its probably going to penalties.