Liverpool owners could face steep fines if club doesn’t sell
Owners of the Liverpool football club, Tom Hicks and George Gillett are being forced to pay £20 million in penalty fees to the Royal Bank of Scotland, if they are unable to sell the popular football club by the end of August.
Despite Kenny Huang’s avid interest in the acquisition of the team and his reassurance that negotiations were progressing smoothly, Mr Huang admitted that he was only 50 per cent confident that the £400 million takeover would go through. The bank currently holds the £237 million in debt that was placed on the Anfield side by the American owners and has said that it will begin imposing fees against the owners rather than the club in an attempt to forcibly rush the sale of the club.
Hicks and Gillet are also reportedly liable for millions of pounds accumulated in punitive interest fees since arranging a new financing deal with RBS in April. The bank has said it will remove the fees from the proceeds of the sale of the football club. However, it added that should the sale of the club yield any less than £282.4 million, the bank would seek legal action to get the Americans to pay the extra charges.
The current owners of the football club are hoping to get £600 million out of the deal in order to cover liabilities in other places, but many familiar with the details of the sale have said that the price is too high and unattainable. A Syrian-Canadian businessman, Yahya Kirdi has been highlighted as the Americans’ preferred bidder, but he has said that he will not pay the asking price for the team. Huang is believed to be placing a £400 million offer on the table.
An upcoming conference could see Huang and the Americans in attendance at the same conference in London later this year. The tension could mount as Huang seeks to oust the American owners. Huang has not spoken out about the deal since announcing his bid for the football club publicly.