George Gillett today insisted he is not preparing to sell his stake in Liverpool.
The Reds co-owner was left stunned when speculation surfaced suggesting he could be ready to auction his 50% share in Anfield.
Gillett has appointed financial advisers BMO Capital Markets to examine all his family’s investments across the globe and is believed to be in the market for a buyer for his Montreal Canadiens ice hockey team.
But he insists this is not the beginning of a process which would lead to him selling his stake in Liverpool.
“We have appointed advisers in different countries to assess our assets,” Gillett told the ECHO.
“We have engaged professionals who are doing some asset planning, it has nothing to do with any decisions to sell any assets.
“We may do some recapitalisation, but any links between what we are doing and the situation at Liverpool is incorrect.
“We have made no decision to sell.”
Canadiens president Pierre Boivin had said: “We’re talking about a very large range of firms and assets which are good companies.
“There is Liverpool, Nascar, the Canadiens and the Bell Centre. This could involve refinancing, the arrival of new investors or – purely and simply – the sale of certain assets.
“The process has been started but we're only at the beginning. We’re not hiding it; we’re going through a very difficult economic period.”
One scenario is that Gillett is trying to raise capital to pay off existing debts in the USA while also putting funds together to enable him to refinance his stake in Liverpool.
Gillett and Hicks are due to refinance the £350m debt they have built up on Liverpool in July and in the current economic climate it is unlikely any financial institution would agree to support such a loan unless secured by big personal guarantees.
With reports from the USA also indicating that Hicks is on the lookout for potential minority investors in the Dallas Stars ice hockey team it seems that Liverpool’s co-owners are covering their positions by making sure they have the necessary finance in place to ensure that being bought out on the cheap is not an option.
Last year, Gillett appointed leading investment bank Rothschild’s to hold talks with potential buyers while Hicks asked Merrill Lynch to do the same for him.
Despite interest from investment groups in Dubai, Kuwait and elsewhere no progress was made, primarily because the asking price – believed to be in the region of £500m – was deemed to be too high.
The Reds co-owner was left stunned when speculation surfaced suggesting he could be ready to auction his 50% share in Anfield.
Gillett has appointed financial advisers BMO Capital Markets to examine all his family’s investments across the globe and is believed to be in the market for a buyer for his Montreal Canadiens ice hockey team.
But he insists this is not the beginning of a process which would lead to him selling his stake in Liverpool.
“We have appointed advisers in different countries to assess our assets,” Gillett told the ECHO.
“We have engaged professionals who are doing some asset planning, it has nothing to do with any decisions to sell any assets.
“We may do some recapitalisation, but any links between what we are doing and the situation at Liverpool is incorrect.
“We have made no decision to sell.”
Canadiens president Pierre Boivin had said: “We’re talking about a very large range of firms and assets which are good companies.
“There is Liverpool, Nascar, the Canadiens and the Bell Centre. This could involve refinancing, the arrival of new investors or – purely and simply – the sale of certain assets.
“The process has been started but we're only at the beginning. We’re not hiding it; we’re going through a very difficult economic period.”
One scenario is that Gillett is trying to raise capital to pay off existing debts in the USA while also putting funds together to enable him to refinance his stake in Liverpool.
Gillett and Hicks are due to refinance the £350m debt they have built up on Liverpool in July and in the current economic climate it is unlikely any financial institution would agree to support such a loan unless secured by big personal guarantees.
With reports from the USA also indicating that Hicks is on the lookout for potential minority investors in the Dallas Stars ice hockey team it seems that Liverpool’s co-owners are covering their positions by making sure they have the necessary finance in place to ensure that being bought out on the cheap is not an option.
Last year, Gillett appointed leading investment bank Rothschild’s to hold talks with potential buyers while Hicks asked Merrill Lynch to do the same for him.
Despite interest from investment groups in Dubai, Kuwait and elsewhere no progress was made, primarily because the asking price – believed to be in the region of £500m – was deemed to be too high.
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