KopTalk.com Forums Football Liverpool FC Forum Official LFC statement

I agree to some extent, I was just spinning positives out of it last night because I had promised myself I wouldnt get caught up in this crap and then I did, so I had to console myself!

However, your point about bids on the table and proposed bids is just semantics really. All bids will be proposed bids until they are accepted. So yes there are bids on the table however you wish to label them. Once accepted then an "official bid" will be made.

My guess would be that they are not yet complete bids, hopefully its nothing major and the required docs will be delivered soon so they can can be given the yay or nay by the board.

The sale process continuing is them basically saying (imo) that they have asked for more details. This is a good thing, its shows the board are doing their job probably.

The thing with this statement is that you can spin it any way you want, positively or negatively, its basically the perfect holding statement! Feckers!

The Liverpool Echo say: The development is a positive sign that there is at last some formal substance to the Anfield sale process, with declared bids and letters of intent from several parties now vying to buy out Americans George Gillett and Tom Hicks, now on the boardroom table. Anfield officials made it clear after news of interest from Huang and Kirdi emerged that they wanted to see potential investors "show them the money" and had grown weary that the process was being played out in the media.

However, the club’s senior executives, led by Chairman Martin Broughton, Managing Director Christian Purslow and Commercial Director Ian Ayre, will take all the time they need to evaluate each offer thoroughly.

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool...00252-27060558/

Posted on RAWK.

A normal Corporate Finance transaction would progress as follows:

1. Corporate Financiers (CF) (Barclays Capital) begin the 'grooming' business - grooming the business for sale by focusing on the areas of the business that can be managed short term to make it more appealing to investors i.e. the appointment of an interim Chairman to oversee this process - highly likely that removing Rafa was part of the 'grooming' for a potential sale - this is classic CF activity pre-sale

2. Corporate Financiers identify potential buyers and require them to sign an NDA (non-disclosure agreement)

3. Once an NDA has been received then the potential investor is supplied with some but not all financial and corporate information in order for them to make 'indicative' bids. This allows the CF's/vendors to identify who are serious and who are not so serious bidders. This type of information supplied is normally forecast financial and business information which is drawn up by the CF's in consultation with the Board/Owners (it's usually called a sales prospectus)

4. Once 'indicative' bids have been received and considered then it is time to choose the 'preferred' bidder. This decision is taken in consultation with the CF's and the Board/Owners of the business (this decision is usually not all about the money - believe it or not a lot of people care who their business is going to and are happy to take a lower price from a higher quality investor - it's all relative of course when you're deciding between £95m or £100m - you're still getting a lot of [oops] mulah either way but people do care about the purchaser. In our case this is clearly not so for G&H but would be for the other 3 as their reputation depends on it).

5. Once the preferred bidder is chosen they then sign an 'exclusivity' agreement and the process enters exclusivity. This is when due diligence (DD) begins, hopefully for both sides. Traditionally due diligence has been a process carried out by the purchaser to make sure the figures are not a lot of [oops]. More commonly vendor due diligence is being carried out to ensure that the purchaser is legitimate.

6. Once DD has been completed then the purchaser will usually negotiate their purchase price because of the results of the DD report (the DD report is prepared by another bunch of CF's).

7. Final agreement is then reached on the deal between both parties and a legal document is drawn up to secure the transaction.

So basically people are fretting because last night's statement was a bit inconclusive - well that's par for the course in a CF transaction. But it shows how far down the road we are - we are within days or hours I would say of preferred bidder status and that means a deal is as good as done provided there are no horrors uncovered by the DD work.

The poster says we are at level 4.