Is this a Short Sale, or a Foreclosure?
Besides the losing to Blackpool and current nest on the highest branch in the relegation zone, it would appear that weeks where Liverpool aren’t playing games turn out to be the best weeks.
Since Tuesday, Reds fans everywhere have been caught head-in-clouds, and understandably so, with news that the club had accepted a bid from New England Sports Ventures (NESV) and would begin sale proceedings immediately.
After all, time’s a ticking, what with the Royal Bank of Scotland ready to pull the plug on Hicks & Gillett’s loans and thus plunging Liverpool into the sticky mire of administration.
But, at the 11th hour, John Henry and his impressive cigar appeared, and the positivity radiating from Anfield has me feeling misty.
However, let me be clear: there’s still a distance to go until the sale is complete and the Reds can finally begin that Phoenix-esque ascent into the middle of the pack, and I can’t help but tremble a little at the speed at which all the peripheral elements are being sorted out.
To balance me out, there’s the overwhelming sense that no judge on the planet would look at this case and side with Hicks & Gillett. For one, they agreed in their last refinancing deal with RBS that they wouldn’t block a sale of the club—they were basically already living on borrowed time by that point—and that they had no authority to reshuffle the board of Directors in order to swing the balance of power back in their favor.
You see, at present, the five members of the board are split in a way that doesn’t help H&G: on one side we have the embattled pair, and the other, some common sense in Christian Purslow, Ian Ayres, and Martin Broughton. Not that it stopped Tom Hicks from trying to fire Ayres and Purslow during the board meeting earlier this week, replacing them (he says) with his son Mack, and Lori McCutcheon, who oversees some of Hicks’ holdings here in the USA.
Desperation really does carry a sweet, seductive scent.
Since then—well, today really—Broughton’s been out and about giving interviews and framing the upcoming court wrangle that should settle this mess, while NESV have been doing due diligence elsewhere, getting their “Fit and Proper Persons” test completed/rubber-stamped and receiving the blessings of the Premier League for their impending deal.
Why do I feel like so much could still go wrong? Is it because I’m just a paranoid fool, unwilling just yet to accept that my club might finally be turning some kind of corner, or is it just because, well, so much could still go wrong?
Simply put, the club is still the property of Hicks and Gillett until someone—NESV, the judge overseeing the case, RBS—pries it from their cold, dead hands, and knowing the pair intimately thanks to their disastrous tenure at Anfield, I can’t imagine they’ll go quietly. It won’t matter to them that the clock has struck twelve, their public images have transmogrified into the image of pumpkins, or that there is a seemingly insurmountable pile of evidence that should allow this legal matter to be resolved rather swiftly.
When you’re facing down a crippling, humiliating loss—early estimates I saw pegged it around $140m—you tend to try just a little bit harder to fight back.
I really hope I’m wrong, and that optimism can burst forth from the courtroom, bringing spring in the middle of the fall, but until all that ink is dried and “no backsies!” has been declared, I simply can’t get too excited. Maybe it was the talk of the January transfer window that plunged me back into fatalism. I just don’t know.
And if this is truly the end of Tom Hicks and George Gillett as the owners of Liverpool Football Club, then you can ignore this post, for I’ll be outside, jumping for joy.
This might not be done for some time. One could imagine that, if the courts side with Broughton and the sale can proceed, Hicks will continue to file other measures until his group finds a way to reduce their financial loss on the transaction. He’s going to fight to avoid being served bigger portions of his humble pie.
@OM
I’m with you in spirit, though I could swear that RBS has threatened to just send the club into admin soon if H&G continue to drag their heels because they’d be in direct violation of the terms of their last refinancing agreement. Need to find out whether that’s true, as it would limit the extent to which they can heel-drag.
@OM: You’re right, except that the RBS has already backed the purchase and has the ability to call their loan in next Friday. So even if Broughton’s bid with the courts fails, it’s a moot point (except for the nine point penalty); NESV will get the club either way, and the long, drawn out process is up against this deadline of a loan due date.
The only way that I can see it getting dragged out longer than a week is if RBS chooses to not call the loan in (if the hearing is delayed, for instance, and they want to avoid putting the club in administration). Then again, my checkbook’s a mess and I don’t really know what I’m talking about.
@ JT, Mags: I figure NESV will get the club if the judge is even 1/3 competent, but my view of H&G is that, much like cockroaches, it’s going to take a nuclear irradiation of Anfield to make them good and truly gone. Remember, Statler and Waldorf always remained up in those balcony seats to be the pricky thorns to all the Muppets.
I would warn against making statements about what is and is not in the refinancing agreement about H&G not reconstituting the board. It’s easy to parade before the media that is on your side and make your argument but the keys to the castle are going to be in the written words. Not the words of Broughton.
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However, I still see this being resolved by the 15th or shortly thereafter because H&G will hold on to get more money and force RBS to put the club in administration if they don’t get the money. So, some more money will be ponied up as a compromise to get this whole mess off of RBS’ books as well as the front pages.
So what’s this now that if they go into administration NESV might pull out?
@Shane: Negotiating a lower price for the club.
Gotcha. All very fun to watch.
Not fun like “Ha-ha, look at you!” fun. Just interesting.
I’d say it’s both of those. Watching negotiations play out in front of you is always interesting, at least to me. But there is a bit of ha, ha, this is so f**ked up to the situation as well.
Yeah. I was trying to be nice. Suppose we can all have a laugh at it now!