Gillett, Hicks Close To Selling Share Of EPL Club Liverpool

Gillett (l), Hicks Being Offered Around $200M

EPL club Liverpool co-Owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks are "closing in on a deal that will see them sell a significant share in the club to a new investor for around" US$200M, according to Paul Kelso of the London TELEGRAPH. A "long-list of around six serious investors has been compiled with two or three proposals thought to be particularly strong, offering the owners around [US$100M] each for a share in the club." It is "yet to be decided precisely what stake the two owners are willing to sign over to a new investor, but they are expected to each offer the same share so that they retain parity on the new board." Gillett and Hicks have indicated in the past that the "intention is to use the money to pay down some of the club's debt, which currently stands at around" US$392M, and "kick-start work on the new stadium development" (TELEGRAPH.co.uk, 12/16).

POWER STRUGGLE: The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Clegg & Kansas write Arsenal investors Stan Kroenke and Alisher Usmanov are "two superpowers locked in a tussle for outright control" of the EPL club. The "latest flashpoint in their power struggle came Friday when Arsenal disclosed that after months of inactivity," Usmanov, through his Red & White Holdings, had acquired 668 shares in the team, "increasing his stake to more than 26%." The news comes as Kroenke has "painstakingly built up his shareholding to just shy of the 30% mark that, under British takeover rules, would oblige the American to launch a full bid for the club." Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger: "It looks at the moment that there are two main people fighting for ownership of the club. Who will get the ownership I don't know" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 12/16).