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DIC/Shielh May Make Fresh Bid?
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David Bartlett Liverpool Daily Post
The Sheikh’s involvement represents a shift from investing via Dubai Interna-tional Capital (DIC), which is owned by the mid-east emirate.
The shift away from using DIC as an investment vehicle is understood to surround the need for the private equity group to make large returns.
The amount that has been offered for the club, between £400m and £500m, and the £350m needed for the new stadium mean returns would not come as quickly or be as high as the demands of private equity.
To that end Sheikh Moham-med is understood to be in regular contact with Amanda Staveley, of PCP Capital Partners, Dubai’s UK-based advisers
DIC TO MAKE FRESH BID? BY OLIVER HOLT of the TIMES - 2 MAY 2008
The most turbulent season in Liverpool’s recent history is approaching a distinctly low-key conclusion, on the pitch at least, but the battle in the boardroom will continue to rage over the summer, with George Gillett Jr determined to defy Tom Hicks, his estranged co-chairman, and force through the sale of his 50 per cent stake in the club to Dubai International Capital (DIC), the Arab investment group.
DIC remains supremely confident that it will take possession of Gillett’s shares in the club in the coming weeks, but Hicks maintains that he will continue to exercise the power of veto he has — a claim that is disputed by Gillett and DIC — to prevent any such sale.
Hicks’s proposed veto is on the basis that he is still trying to find the funds or the backing that he would need to buy Liverpool outright. Hicks is under pressure to prove that he has the funds to take the club forward on his own, but sources in Texas have indicated that he is drawing up a business plan that would raise the £300 million needed for the construction of the club’s proposed new 71,000-capacity stadium in Stanley Park, which is due to open in 2011.
The end of Liverpool’s Champions League campaign, after their defeat by Chelsea in the second leg of their semi-final on Wednesday, was expected to accelerate the process, with DIC having kept its distance over the past four weeks, but now it must weigh up its next move, whether to wait or whether to exert more pressure on the owners to reach a solution. For now Rafael Benítez, the Liverpool manager, appears to be working on the assumption that Hicks will be calling the shots at Anfield for the foreseeable future.
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