April 4 – Liverpool are set to reject a bid for control of the club from New York-based fund management company Rhône Group, which would enable them to pay off £100 million of debt demanded by Royal Bank of Scotland.
Rhône’s deadline for Liverpool to take or leave their £110 million offer - made last month – expires tomorrow.
With seemingly no willingness on the part of the company’s partners, Robert Agostinelli and Steven Langman, to offer an extension, Liverpool must look elsewhere for funds.
Talks have broken down over Rhône’s demand for control of the club rather than the valuation of the 40 per cent share they would take.
Rhône wanted concrete assurances written into any deal that Liverpool’s co-owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, would not be able to combine their 30 per cent shares to maintain overall control.
A 100 per cent takeover from Hicks and Gillett would seem to solve that issue, which always seemed a sticking point.
Though Rhône’s departure leaves Liverpool with no firm offers as the club reaches the Easter deadline, which managing director Christian Purslow had identified for finding a new equity partner, there are suggestions that the interest of two prospective investors may be turned into firm bids.
Hicks and Gillett, the unpopular Americans, have been told by RBS that they must reduce their £237 million debt burden by £100 million by July if they are to be granted a deal to refinance their loans over a longer period and given access to funds to begin work on any new Stanley Park Stadium.
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