Singapore tycoon makes £360m bid for Liverpool

[Dodomeki]

Singapore tycoon makes £360m bid for Liverpool

12 October 2010

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This photo made available on October 12 by the Straits Times newspaper shows billionaire Peter Lim at his condominium in Singapore. Lim on Tuesday announced an offer of 360 million pounds (574 million US dollars) in cash for troubled English football club Liverpool.

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SINGAPORE (AFP) - Peter Lim, a sports-loving Singaporean billionaire, on Tuesday announced an increased offer of 360 million pounds (574 million US dollars) in cash for troubled English football club Liverpool. "I respect and admire Liverpool Football Club, which is steeped in tradition and history," said Lim, 57, a self-made fishmonger's son whose fortune is estimated by US business magazine Forbes at 1.6 billion dollars. "I am committed to rebuild the club so that it can soon regain its position at the pinnacle of English and European football, where it truly belongs. This is why I have stepped forward with this offer," he added in a statement.

Lim's offer values the club at 320 million pounds. A further 40 million pounds will be made available to purchase new players. The package is 20 percent higher than a US rival's proposal of 300 million pounds accepted by the club's management over a similar offer by Lim during an auction that ended last week. Liverpool chairman Martin Broughton's decision to sell to New England Sports Ventures (NESV), owner of the Boston Red Sox baseball team, is now being contested by Liverpool's current American owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett.

A High Court hearing on the case started Tuesday in London shortly after Lim made his bid public. The new offer is in cash and will remove the entire acquisition debt of 200 million pounds taken on by the existing owners that has cast uncertainty over the club's future, the statement said. "My offer provides a firm financial platform from which the club can rebuild. Given the manner in which the sale process has been handled, I feel Martin and the Board owe it to me, to the club and to the supporters to consider my offer."

The case being heard in London will hinge on whether Liverpool chairman Martin Broughton had the authority to sell the troubled English giants to NESV against the wishes of its owners. The boardroom battle has coincided with Liverpool's worst start to a season for nearly 50 years, with the club languishing in the relegation zone and eliminated from the League Cup. Lim, described by his publicists as a passionate football fan, currently holds the franchise for Manchester United theme restaurants in Asia.

A source close to the tycoon told AFP that if his offer for Liverpool succeeds, Lim will give up the Red Devils restaurant franchise. Andy Ho, president of the Official Liverpool FC Fan Club which claims 5,000 members, said he was happy with the prospective Singapore link to the team. "Forty million (pounds) is a lot of money no matter how you look at it. You could get a few good quality payers with the money," he told AFP. Lim studied commerce, accountancy and finance at the University of Western Australia in Perth, supporting himself as a cabbie, waiter and cook.

He first made a fortune as Singapore's hottest share trader in the 1990s, and made even more money as a private investor who now has interests in agribusiness, fashion, logistics, hood and beverages and healthcare. Lim funds scholarships for bright but needy Singapore schoolchildren and recently gave a 7.7 million dollar grant to the Singapore Olympics Foundation to help promising young athletes, particularly those from poor families, realise their sporting dreams.

 

[Dodomeki]

Liverpool closer to being sold to Red Sox owners


Liverpool closer to being sold to Red Sox owners

Liverpool supporters sing as they protest outside the High Court in London where a hearing to rule on the legality of the sale of Liverpool Football Club to New England Sports Ventures took place, Tuesday.​

A British judge ruled against Liverpool's owners Wednesday in a decision that brings the debt-ridden Premier League club a step closer to being sold to the owners of the Boston Red Sox. High Court Judge Christopher Floyd ruled that American co-owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr. do not have the power to oust the boardroom rivals who sanctioned the sale.

The board agreed last week, against the wishes of Hicks and Gillett, to sell the club to New England Sports Ventures for 300 million pounds. "This will pave the way to a sale," club chairman Broughton said outside the court after Wednesday's ruling. "We will have a board meeting this evening and proceed with the sale process."

The current owners claim the price undervalues the club and Liverpool should consider other offers. The judge, who heard five hours of court arguments in the case Tuesday, ruled that Hicks and Gillett have "no absolute right to veto a sale." "In these circumstances, it would be entirely wrong to grant the owners" an injunction to stop the sale, he said.

The judge said the board should meet later Wednesday to approve the sale to the Boston group, headed by financier John Henry, ahead of Friday's deadline to repay the club's debts to the Royal Bank of Scotland. The judge said it would be "inappropriate" for Hicks and Gillett to appeal. Keith Oliver, a lawyer representing the duo, said he was consulting with Hicks and Gillett on their next steps.

The ruling is a victory for Broughton, managing director Christian Purslow and commercial director Ian Ayre. "Well done Martin, Christian & Ian," Henry posted on his Twitter account after the announcement. "Well done RBS. Well done supporters!" Inside the court, after the ruling was announced, Purslow turned to a Liverpool fan behind him and said, "We've won."

Outside the court, dozens of Liverpool fans - many wearing team shirts and waving banners and club scarves - cheered, chanted slogans against Hicks and Gillett and serenaded the three board members with the Liverpool anthem "You'll Never Walk Alone." Had the sale been blocked, Liverpool could have fallen into financial administration, a form of bankruptcy protection that would have incurred a nine-point penalty for the club from the Premier League.

Liverpool, which won the last of its 18 English league titles in 1990, is off to its worst start to a season since 1953 and is mired in the relegation zone. Lawyers for Hicks and Gillett told the court on Tuesday the duo were excluded from parts of the sale process and there were other more lucrative offers for the 18-time English champions that should be considered.

Singapore businessman Peter Lim, whose first bid was turned down last week in favor of the Boston offer, announced Tuesday he was raising his offer to 320 million pounds, with an additional 40 million pounds to buy new players. It was also revealed Tuesday that American hedge fund Mill Financial has put in a bid that also pledges to wipe out the club's debts and would provide up to 100 million pounds to fund a new stadium.

Mill Financial technically controls Gillett's 50 percent stake after he defaulted on the loan used by Gillett to fund his part of the leveraged takeover in 2007. It is the owners' inability to repay around 285 million pounds of debt that led RBS to instigate a sale process in April and revamp the board to ensure the two no longer had a majority. - AP

Published Oct 13 2010