Tom Hicks and George Gillett's reign as owners of Liverpool could have as little as a month to run, according to the Guardian, after the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) placed the club's loans with them into their toxic assets division.
This is the strongest signal yet that the loans will not be restructured. The deadline for the refinancing of the loans is October 6.
The report claims that the pair tried to refinance the debt in June, securing it against their personal assets. However, the attempt was overruled by the club's board, led by the chairman, Martin Broughton.
With the debts having been moved by RBS to its Global Restructuring Group a far more hardline attitude is set to come into force from the bank.
The bank may now apparently move to sell the club, more than likely at a knockdown price, within the next few weeks or as soon as possible after the October 6 deadline.
According to the club's accounts to July 2009 Liverpool's owners owe £237.4 million to RBS. The real figure could be much higher than that though, with Hicks and Gillett also reported as owing £145.3m due to commitments to the club and its lender.
That figure is apparently a mixture of cash, mainly injected through equity, and guarantees to the RBS loans.
Although RBS would apparently be reluctant to take direct control of the club or to force it into administration by placing the club's holding companies into liquidation.
They may want to sell the club in a cut-price deal though, with Broughton and the investment bank, Barclays Capital, advising him, maintaining that the club's debts must be paid as a minimum sale price.
The club's co-owners are said to value the club at £800m and have given signs in the past that they would be unwilling to accept any cut-price deal. It seems that their options on that score may be running out, however.
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