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# Times: Finance from number of sources, significant investment from banking institutions, but CIC to hold majority stake. #LFC 3 minutes ago via TweetDeck

# Times: CIC holds significant stake in bid. Dr Yang Guang, exec vp Franklin Templeton Investments, is raising cash for Chinese consortium. 5 minutes ago via TweetDeck

# Times: #LFC ownership could change as quickly as next Friday. Consortium fronted by Kenny Huang remains in pole position. 8 minutes ago via TweetDeck

# Times: Liverpool have told potential bidders for the club that they have until the middle of next week to prove they have the cash. #lfc 10 minutes ago via TweetDeck

Liverpool tell their bidders to show them the money



Tony Evans I Helen Power
Updated 1 minute ago
Deadline set with Chinese in pole position
Liverpool have told potential bidders for the club that they have until the middle of next week to prove they have the cash. The Times has also learnt more details about the leading bid, backed by the Chinese Government.
Martin Broughton, the Liverpool chairman, set the deadline yesterday. The club could change ownership as quickly as next Friday with the consortium fronted by Kenny Huang, the Hong Kong-based entrepreneur, remaining in pole position.
China Investment Capital (CIC), the investment arm of the Chinese Government, holds a significant stake in the bid, as revealed by The Times yesterday. It has now emerged that the man responsible for raising cash for the Chinese consortium is Dr Yang Guang, the executive vice-president of Franklin Templeton Investments, one of the largest global investment fund groups.
The New York-based Guang has acquired finance from a number of sources, including significant investment from banking institutions, but CIC would hold the majority stake in any takeover. However, CIC will not invest directly in the Merseyside club, but into a new company created specifically to push the deal through.
Guang joined QSL Sports Limited, Huang’s company, in May and has been a conduit for Chinese investment in the West since the early 1990s. The Harvard-educated financier has strong links with the Chinese Government.
Despite reports to the contrary yesterday, CIC has not denied its involvement in the Liverpool bid. Officials at China’s investment fund have assessed the business plans for the club and believe that CIC will make a considerable profit by pumping money into Anfield.
The decision to attempt to invest in Liverpool was taken purely on money-making potential and sources close to the deal were keen to distinguish CIC’s intentions from the takeovers at Chelsea and Manchester City, which came down to the decisions of rich individuals — Roman Abramovich and Sheihk Mansour respectively — to buy the clubs.
Unlike the owners of Chelsea and City, CIC would have little input in the day-to-day running of the club. Decision-making at Anfield would be left to executives with extensive experience in the Premier League, with new positions created to exploit Far Eastern markets.
Huang has already told Barclays Capital (BarCap), the investment bank brokering the sale, the Premier League and Broughton that he has the backing of CIC. BarCap needs proof that bidders are good for the £300 million plus required to buy the club before they can pass through to a final round of the auction.
Supporter reaction to the idea of Chinese-led ownership was generally favourable yesterday, with the majority of fans keen to see the back of Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr, the present co-owners.
The two other bids that remained on the table yesterday are thought to be from the private equity group, Rhône Capital, and the billionaire al-Kharafi family of Kuwait.
Further pressure was heaped on Hicks and Gillett to finalise a swift sale when an American court ruled yesterday that Hicks’s creditors can attempt to seize his assets.
The judge handling the bankruptcy of Hicks’s baseball team, the Texas Rangers, said lenders — who are still owed $525 million after the Texan defaulted on loans — can pursue his other companies for the money. One of the Rangers’ creditors is Alex Rodríguez, the former player and the youngest baseball player to hit 600 home runs.
Broughton declined to comment last night on whether creditors could try to enforce their claims against Hicks’s share of Liverpool.

CIC deny Reds interest
Confusion surrounds Liverpool bidder
http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11661_6296243,00.html

Seriously all this is goin to drive me insane

That's why I'm not talking about it for a while.

same here mate, just taking a back seat now bit sick of reading about it to be honest, if it isnt huang the fans will feel let down so im not getting my hopes up. i dont think it will be huang personally.

Red4Life money doesnt always buy you the league eg. Real madrid , and i can guarentee you that man city will not win the league for at least 3-4 years. Money is whats needed these days no matter who you are just to be in the EPL and be above 7th in the table , avoid administration and to keep players happy. Thats football these days bud and until you accept that you will continue to indulge yourself in your bitter depressed moods day in day out.

APNewsBreak: Group won't enrich Hicks, Gillett (associated press)
By RONALD BLUM (AP) – 35 minutes ago

NEW YORK — A group of Chinese investors said Friday that any offer it makes to buy Liverpool from Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr. won't enrich the embattled American co-owners.

Marc Ganis, whose Chicago-based company Sportscorp Ltd. has helped form the investment group, said it first contacted Liverpool chairman Martin Broughton on Monday, a day after reports of a possible bid first surfaced.

"We haven't submitted a formal proposal but we submitted the broad parameters of what a proposal would look like to see if it would be welcomed, and it was," he said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press, hours after he returned to the United States from China.

A company called QSL Sports Limited would be controlling owner of the limited liability corporation that would own Liverpool FC. QSL is co-headed by Kenneth Huang, a Hong Kong businessman, and Guang Yang, executive vice president of Franklin Templeton Investments and chief investment officer of the China Life/Franklin Templeton Fund.

In an interview arranged through Hill & Knowlton Hong Kong, Ganis said those two would be the only owners involved in the management of the club. Other investors would be passive, and each would own no more than 20 percent.
China Investment Corp. — the country's sovereign wealth fund — would not have a direct ownership stake in the club. However, Ganis said it may be part of an investment vehicle organized by Yang and his financial team that would have a passive ownership interest.

Ganis said the group had four primary goals if it makes a bid:
_Leave Liverpool debt free.
_Make a significant equity investment and construct the long-delayed new stadium to replace Anfield.
_Invest a large amount that would be available for player transfers.
_Have an Asian initiative to expand Liverpool's fan base and commercial activities with the goal of creating new economic value for the club using QSL's platform in China.

"What is not one of our goals in the enrichment of the existing owners," Ganis said, "If we submit a proposal and it is accepted, it would be focused on the future and not the past."

Barclays has told potential bidders they will have to show they have the financing to go through with the proposals. After QSL's interest emerged, former Syrian club player Yahya Kirdi claimed Wednesday that he was fronting a consortium of investors from the Middle East and Canada that was close to completing a takeover.

Liverpool has won 18 English league titles — but none since 1990 — and its record has been matched by Manchester United. Beset by infighting between Hicks and Gillett plus player injuries, it failed to qualify for this season's Champions League, losing tens of millions of dollars in revenue.

But captain Steven Gerrard and star forward Fernando Torres decided to remain with the club under new manager Roy Hodgson, who replaced Rafa Benitez after last season. Ganis said any deal would not close until well after the summer transfer window ends Aug. 31.

Hicks, whose Texas Rangers were auctioned this week in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Fort Worth, bought Liverpool with Gillett three years ago in a deal valued at $431 million. Hicks said he wants $950 million to $1.25 billion for the club, whose known debt last stood at $375 million.

Ganis said his group will not bid close to that.
"If anybody wants to, good luck," he said, without disclosing what his group is willing to bid. "We know what we would be prepared to do. If somebody else wants to look at it in a different way, it's their money. That would be their business, not ours."

His group isn't concerned about high-spending owners in the Premier League, who include Manchester City's Sheik Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Chelsea's Roman Abramovich. Ganis said the Financial Fair Play rules that begin for European soccer this season will help curb extreme spending on transfers.

"That creates certain constraints that many observers feel are quite responsible and will reduce the risk of irrational money being spent," he said. "But even at that, Liverpool is and always should be one of the highest-spending clubs in all of football. And our financial models presume Liverpool will be at or near the top in spending on players every year."
Ganis said that they have been impressed in many ways with the manner in which Liverpool is being operated.
"From what we have seen from afar, many of the people currently running Liverpool are doing a good job," he said. "There shouldn't be an expectation there would be a mass upheaval if we submit and are approved."

Ganis and the China-based group began forming last spring as a potential investor with another group that evaluated a potential investment in Liverpool. Ganis contacted the Royal Bank of Scotland, which holds Liverpool's debt, and was put in contact last week with Broughton and Barclays Capital, which is attempting to sell the club for the co-owners.
QSL, in conjunction with the Chinese government, owns and operated two professional sports leagues and one minor league. QSL also owns sports publications and in September will roll out an all-sports website.

AP Sports Writer Rob Harris in London contributed to this report.

Link to the above post.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hW6v-W2X9tuItHbkmfxml1Ew3WvwD9HDRU9O0

I totally agree with Troycook8. The reason our club did so well in the 70´s and 80´s wasn´t just we were managing the club "The Shankly Way". We had adopted to the times and did what was necessary to bring the club forwards. No other team around the world did it better than us at that time! We attracted players from Merseyside as well as from abroad. Everyone wanted to play for us.

Since then other teams (for example Barcelona, Scums and Chelski) have taken not one but several steps forwards in the financial area. This has lead to that they have passed us in the football area as well. If You don´t beleive this, then just have a look at when we took our 18:th and last league title! 20 years ago! That can´t be a coincidence! One (1) big title between 1991 and 2010 = CL 2005.

The pure fact that we hopefully soon will be able to spend some money on a new stadium and new players, will not mean that we have sold our souls to the devil. If we just have the old values in mind, and mix them with today´s demand, I think we will have a chance to excel again, the Liverpool way!