Liverpool's owners George Gillett, left, and Tom Hicks,
right, pose with unidentified family members at Anfield in February
2007.
Tom Hicks and George Gillett will have to settle for a
profit reduced by $150m (£110m) if they sell Liverpool to
Nasser al-Kharafi, the Kuwaiti billionaire, after their failure to
close a deal for Liverpool last July.
Kharafi approached the Americans last year with a view to
sealing a £600m purchase of the Anfield club. But, with contracts
all but signed, Kharafi inexplicably pulled out of the
negotiations. Hicks is said by one close observer to have been
"incandescent" at the failure to close the deal last summer.
Kharafi has returned to the table but it is understood this time
on different terms. Liverpool are now six months from maturity on
their £350m loans with RBS and Wachovia, and it does not appear
likely any banks will continue to support the Americans' highly
leveraged operation. Neither Hicks nor Gillett is believed to have
invested any cash in their purchase of Liverpool and, with the pair
reportedly not seeing eye to eye, that situation is unlikely to
change.
Kharafi is expected now to take advantage of the immovable July
deadline faced by the Americans with a reduced offer in the region
of £400m.
It is understood that no price has yet been agreed. However, the
fact that the details of the negotiations were leaked suggests it
is close to being finalised.
Alongside the fall in the purchase price, the collapse in the
value of the pound against the dollar means the profit Hicks and
Gillett are expected to make for selling Liverpool will in dollar
terms be slashed to little more than $40m each.
