by Tony Barrett from the Liverpool Daily Post Jan 17 2008 sourced from
DURING an exhaustive search for investment in Liverpool Football Club Reds chief executive Rick Parry spoke of the need for any deal to be absolutely right.
“You can only sell the family silver once,” he famously remarked.
Today Liverpool are facing up to the previously unimaginable possibility of half of the family silver being sold for the second time in less than a year – if Tom Hicks is willing to sell.
DIC loom large on the Anfield horizon again.
After missing out to Hicks and George Gillett last time around Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum is understood to be ready to do everything in his power to ensure it does not happen again.
But despite being one of the richest men in the world Sheikh Mohammed does not use his immense wealth to pay over the odds for any business.
When he was beaten to the punch by Hicks and Gillett last February one of his most trusted aides told the world bluntly “we won’t overpay for assets”.
So, if a deal is to be struck, it must suit all parties.
DIC chief executive and self-confessed Liverpool fan Sameer Al Ansari intimated the investment vehicle’s interest in the club ended when Hicks and Gillett took control.
But in reality their interest has never really gone away.
In the autumn they entered into talks with Hicks and Gillett with a view to snapping up a minority share of between 10-20% - only for any potential deal to founder on the Americans’ £1bn valuation of the club.
Now they are looking at setting up a deal in which they would buy, at the very least, a 50% share in Liverpool.
A firm bid could be forthcoming within days.
It is undoubtedly decision time for Hicks and Gillett who thought they had seen off DIC’s interest once and for all when they paid £218.9m for Liverpool last February.
But since then plans to refinance their initial purchase and pay for the long-awaited new Anfield with a new loan running into hundreds of millions of pounds have been slowed down by the American credit crunch making borrowing money much more difficult than it was 12 months ago.
There has also been a reticence from honorary life president and former chairman David Moores and Parry to sign up to a refinancing package which will plunge the club into hundreds of millions of pounds of debt.
As progress has stalled DIC has stepped up its long-standing interest and it is now ready to pounce.
Their desire is understood to have been fuelled by speculation Moores is becoming increasingly minded he should have gone with DIC rather than Hicks and Gillett when both parties put forward rival bids last year.
The fact Liverpool fans displayed their displeasure with the way the club is being run by the American pair at Anfield on Tuesday night did not go unnoticed in Dubai.
Banners unfurled on the Kop during the FA Cup tie against Luton Town sent an SOS to DIC and there were several negative chants directed at Hicks and Gillett.
It could be that, like his fellow countryman, Man United owner Malcolm Glazer, Hicks is prepared to ride out any storm of controversy whipped up by unsettled fans.
But as a businessman of international repute, he will also be aware such naked negativity from his customers is not sustainable in the long term.
Liverpool’s very future is today on a knife edge.
The family silver could be up for grabs again.
Although it is still too early to tell whether it will eventually change hands, DIC are certainly ready to test the water.
more news stories from here:
1.Dubai International to make bid for Liverpool FC
2.Arabs refuse to play down talk of buying into Liverpool FC
3.Jamie Carragher: Off-field antics can't distract us in games
4.Liverpool ponder move to buy out Hicks
5.Owners insist Liverpool are not for sale
6.Power struggle rocks Anfield
7.Riise backing Rafa
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