LFC owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett appear set to extend the £350m loan the club has with the Royal Bank of Scotland and Bank of Wachovia. All the hand-wringing and inflammatory news headlines regarding Liverpool's supposed "financial crisis" will have to go back on the shelf to be pulled out again at a later date.
For a fee.
The banks are willing to extend the due date on the loan until some later date not yet revealed for a £3.5m "arrangement fee" and an interest rate four points higher than the banking rate, which is reportedly similar to the current deal. That is a one point fee for the extension, which is not so bad, but certainly the club would like to find a long term refinance of the loan, and so would its supporters.
The bank's willingness to extend the loan indicates the finance world may not see Liverpool's financial status as dire as the headline writers would like us to believe. The club has shown increased revenue over last year and looks set to at least maintain the revenue next season as it qualified for CL play again and took second in the league.
If the club could ever get financing for a stadium deal, there would be much to be optimistic about for the Mersey Red side. However, there are no indications that deal is anywhere near completion.
The extension shows the banks are still willing to take your money and keep extending you so long as you make minimal payments. This whole thing is like a really big credit card bill for LFC. So long as Hicks and Gillett keep making payments the club will be ok. But, you have to wonder when the bailout will come and where it will come from in the end. India? China? Middle East? America?
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Liverpool Crisis Delayed Until A Later Date
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7 comments:
Cue the fan backlash in 3, 2, 1...
The Mail on Sunday can reveal that RBS have sought advice from police and other authorities about the prospect of Liverpool fans attacking branches if they did not re-finance the owners’ loans.
Some people are crazy.
But now the Spirit of Shankly fans’ group are urging RBS not to agree a new deal with the Americans so that their stakes can be seized and the club sold to new owners.
So, if you refinance we're going to urge supporters to boycott you. But if you do refinance we're going to attack your branches.
Awesome.
I'm just waiting for some money bags to pay H&G a portion of what they want and get this over with. I presume these guys want to hold on until they get a stadium deal in place because then the value would go up.
Oops... "But if you don't refinance we're going to attack your branches."
Soccernet ran a 'they will have to sell their best players' story today.
Just because they won't pay nearly twenty million pounds for someone they sold for four million doesn't mean they're going to have to sell Mascherano and Torres.
The Spirit of Shankly actually DON'T want the banks to refinance, on the premise that failure to refinance will force H&G to sell. I kind of think that's one of those "bound to backfire" plans myself.
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