Michael Taylor
Editor of North West Business Insider
In Focus: In play
Could England’s most successful football club find itself being run by a taxpayer-owned bank? Seemingly yes. The Observer reported at the weekend that should Liverpool FC not be sold in the next two months, the Royal Bank of Scotland’s corporate restructuring team could assume control of the club and run it as a wholly-owned subsidiary.
The bank’s main £237m loan expires on 6 October, having last been refinanced in April, at which point the British Airways chairman Martin Broughton was brought in as chairman and Barclays Capital instructed to run the sale process. If Tom Hicks and George Gillett haven’t decided their era has reached a somewhat underwhelming end, the decision has been taken for them. The clock is ticking.
There are bidders out there, of course – football has long strengthened the argument of those who subscribe to the “greater fool” theory and football remains attractive. The history of Liverpool FC, the worldwide fan base and the under-realised commercial revenue streams make it appealing to investors who think the Americans had the right idea, but lacked the ability to pull it off. With Arsenal’s mind-boggling matchday revenues at the Emirates as a benchmark, they’ll see the stadium as a priority.
But those named are either yet to break cover, or yet to convince of their solidity. New York-based transatlantic fund management firm Rhone is a serious outfit, which reportedly offered £110m for a 40 per cent stake in the spring. It is still talked of as a potential buyer, but has remained tight-lipped. There has been talk of interest from the Kuwaiti Kharafi Group and Indian industrial giant Sahara, but nothing of substance yet.
Syrian Yahya Kirdi is said to be representing Middle East and Canadian investors. Hmmm. Such consortia are always, always talked about over football club sales, but it very rarely comes to anything. Kenny Huang has been the name up in lights, but is his bid backed by the China Investment Corporation, as had been indicated? Broughton has asked all parties to show the colour of their money this week. As well he might. 6 October really isn’t very far away.
At least now questions of the right way to go about things are now being asked, but financial basket-case though it may be, English football is far from alone. Italian football’s finances have long been a shambles, while Real Madrid are a byword for nouveau riche vulgarity. And FC Barcelona, that “no logo” slightly holier-than-thou bastion of all that is wholesome, with a team raised largely in the club’s youth system, is £369.5m in the hole after an annual loss of £64.3m. We’re through the looking glass here.
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About Michael
Michael Taylor joined Insider in 2000 when he became editorial director. He has been responsible for overseeing the significant growth of the editorial division in this time.
Michael has played a major role in the development of Insider events, insiderbusiness.tv and is a regular contributor to BBC Radio Manchester. During his tenure as Editor of the multi-award winning North West Business Insider Magazine he has made the magazine market leader in the North West.
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