Redwire

The Chinese fund represented by Kenny Huang has spent the past fortnight raising precisely the amount of cash required to finance a bid for Liverpool. Sources have confirmed to Digger that the China Investment Corporation, the sovereign-wealth fund to the world's most populous nation, is the organisation being fronted by Huang, who yesterday admitted interest in bidding for Liverpool. In a series of trades since 19 July, CIC has sold $558m of shares in Morgan Stanley, equating to £351.4m. That sum is equivalent to Liverpool's debt to the nearest decimal place, and is exactly the number insiders say has been quoted to interested parties as the sale price. China Daily, the English-language arm of the Chinese state media, reported yesterday: "China Investment Corp, the Chinese sovereign wealth fund that bought a 9.9% stake in Morgan Stanley in 2007, sold $90.5m of shares in the investment bank on 30 July, bringing the total amount divested in the last two weeks to about $558m." Although sovereign-wealth funds have enormous values of assets under management, cash is generally tied up in equity and bond markets. This requires liquidation by share sales before major new investments can be made. It is therefore hugely significant that the £351.4m number is also equivalent to Liverpool's debt, suggesting that CIC is shifting its assets ahead of an offer for the five-times European Cup winners. It also indicates that despite the ambitions of the Anfield club's chairman, Martin Broughton, to generate a return for Tom Hicks and George Gillett, China is refusing to reward them for their three-and-a half-year ownership of the club. The Americans' capacity to dictate terms is further reduced by the fact that there are few other credible bidders preparing to compete with Huang and CIC. Even those involved in the sale process have dismissed the announcement yesterday from Yahya Kirdi, the former Syrian footballer with business links in Canada, of his intention to compete with Huang for Liverpool. Kirdi has previously talked of his interest but is said not to have meaningfully pursued it, but his interest could raise the price that current owners are looking for. The Rhone Group has also re-emerged as a possible interested party. But although it is regarded as being financially capable of mounting a bid, the private equity firm has come to the table before, having looked at a minority-stake investment in March. But it did not go through with the deal. Huang confirmed for the first time yesterday he had contacted Liverpool's brokers in the sale – who together are Broughton and Barclays's investment-banking division, Barcap – to "register interest". He did state he "has made no formal bid", however CIC's cash-raising exercise demonstrates it is in a position to make an approach at any time. In that event the red half of Merseyside might be concerned about the impact of direct investment from the Chinese government in their club. But in anticipation of negative reaction to its world-wide investment activities, CIC's website states: "CIC strives to contribute to the prosperity and development of local economies. It adds: "CIC usually does not seek an active role in the companies in which it invests nor attempts to influence those companies' operations. CIC seeks long-term, stable, sustainable, and risk-adjusted return." Although the message of prudence, at a time when CIC's dumping of £531.4m of Morgan Stanley shares has conspicuously not generated any money for transfer activity, might dishearten fans, it should not be interpreted as a lack of team investment. CIC would be purchasing a debt-free club and would be capable of taking out smaller, more affordable loans to finance team strengthening this summer. And after the years of chaos associated with the unsustainable debt run up under Hicks and Gillett, that would no doubt be a welcome relief to Liverpool fans, as will the fact CIC is happy with Roy Hodgson being the manager. Dealmaker Kops it The ubiquitous football dealmaker Keith Harris popped up on telly yesterday to give his view on Liverpool's sale situation, amid talk that he is representing an unknown bidder. He claimed the club was worth more than the reported £300m-plus sale price, which if you think about it would be rather an unusual statement from someone representing a potential buyer. Could it be that he is instead acting for the current owners to achieve the a better price for the club? Some think so, and he did not respond to Digger's message yesterday asking him whether he was involved. But if he is working for Liverpool, he is not doing it wholeheartedly. Throughout his interview yesterday the 1990s-edition Manchester United shirt that sits in pride of place in his office was in full view. http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/aug/05/china-liverpool-ownership-fund Financial muscle makes Chinese bid favourite with Liverpool board By Ian Herbert Hicks and Gillett are failing to persuade Broughton to pick Syrian offer as details of Huang's backing emerge Liverpool's American owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett appeared to be losing their fight to walk away from the club with a profit last night as Gillett's preferred Syrian buy-out bid was widely dismissed as lacking credibility and the rival Chinese move for the club was revealed to be backed by the state-owned Chinese Investment Corporation (CIC) which has $332bn (£209bn) of assets under management. In another day of dramatic scrambling for the ownership of Liverpool, which coincided with manager Roy Hodgson confirming he is ready to make an £8m bid to bring Juventus' defensive midfielder Christian Poulsen to Anfield as a likely replacement for Javier Mascherano, representatives of Yahya Kirdi, the former Syria international now fronting the bid, insisted that a price has been agreed and a formal purchase agreement "is in the final stage of negotiation". But the Kirdi camp could not explain to The Independent last night where their money was coming from, and this newspaper also understands that CIC is behind the rival Chinese move for the club, led by businessman Kenny Huang, which appears to remove one of the biggest uncertainties about that bid. CIC, formed in 2007 as a way of investing Chinese currency reserves, ploughed €800m (£665m)into one of the funds operated by the Apax Partners private equity company earlier this year, though a move for Liverpool would be something completely different to its previous activities. Though questions remain about Huang - claims that he bid for a stake in the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team in the United States, have been denied by the National Basketball Association - the precise source of the sovereign wealth which his representatives assert is behind him has not been divulged until now. Gillett is desperate to fend off Huang's bid as the money offered would be used to buy the club's £237m debt from the banks and to invest in the club. None of the funds would go to Gillett or his co-owner Hicks, leaving them nothing from their initial personal investment of £130m. The firm suspicion remains that Gillett is touting Kirdi as a stalling device to prevent a Chinese takeover at the end of the month. Liverpool's non-executive chairman, Martin Broughton, of Barclays Capital (BarCap), was recruited by Hicks and Gillett to find a buyer for the club but is aware that if he arranges a sale to buyers who make a mess of the club's future, his reputation will be severely damaged. Broughton has suggested that there are several bids to weigh up before preferred bidder status is granted, preferably before the transfer window closes, though as of last night the Huang bid and that of the New York based Rhône Group - who have re-entered the picture, four months after their £100m bid for a share of the club ultimately proved fruitless - were the only the main contenders. Despite reports to the contrary last night, a source close to the process said a bid from the Kuwaiti Al-Kharafi family looks unlikely to succeed, despite them having re-entered the picture recently. Having made his part in the scramble for the club clear in a blizzard of publicity - perhaps to make sure that Hicks and Gillett can not manoeuvre him out of the picture behind the scenes as they did Rhône Group back in March - Huang has decided, or been asked, to move back into the shadows as his offer to buy out the club's £237m debt from the Royal Bank of Scotland is now considered. To that end, Huang has clarified that his negotiation is ongoing and stipulated that only his PR agents, the Hong Kong office of Hill and Knowlton, are now authorised to speak for him. But the public job of pressing Liverpool to accept his bid by his deadline of tomorrow week, apparently in time for Hodgson to get his hands on Chinese funds to spend on transfers, has been well and truly done. Though Broughton and BarCap have given Gillett clearance to pursue discussions with Kirdi, claims from the Syrian's representatives yesterday that an agreement on purchase price has been reached, which would pay off the club's debt and build the new stadium critical to their financial future, were met with bemusement by those close to the investment process. Two sources in the financial community have suggested that the size of Kirdi's offer far outweighs Haung's, though with the source of his funds so unclear the fear is that he, like Gillett and Hicks, may be planning to borrow money to purchase with a leveraged buy-out which would leave the club's future as uncertain as ever. Of the uncertain financial future, Hodgson would say only that it is better that the Americans be gone soon. "I don't want to go down the ownership route because I don't know enough about it," the manager said. "Unfortunately the owners we have are very unpopular with the fans. They know it and that is why they are prepared to sell the club." The Chinese investment fund behind Huang's bid * Established in Beijing in September 2007, the China Investment Corporation (CIC) is a $300bn (£190bn) sovereign wealth fund. * Modelled on a similar fund in Singapore, It was originally established to utilise China's foreign exchange reserves for the benefit of the state and to mitigate risks in the country's huge foreign exchange reserves. * The fund comprises of two halves: an operation which makes global investments, and China Huijin Investment Ltd, which invests in domestic state-owned financial institutions on the government's behalf. Reserves are mainly held in low-risk, low-yielding instruments such as US Treasury bonds, but the global recession has led CIC to attempt to diversify to improve returns. * CIC recorded an 11.7 per cent return on their £37bn overseas investments last year, reversing a decline from the previous 12 months when investments fell 2.1 per cent as an indirect result of the global financial situation. Net profit totalled $41.66bn (£26.2bn) last year, almost doubling the $23.1bn (£14.6bn) from 2008. Nearly 44 per cent of the fund's equity investments were in North America, with 28.4 per cent in the Asia-Pacific region and 20.5 per cent in Europe. * At the end of last year, the fund held shares in dozens of US-listed companies, including Coca-Cola, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and private equity giant Blackstone, while also having equity holdings in US-listed firms included shares in Motorola among others. http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/financial-muscle-makes-chinese-bid-favourite-with-liverpool-board-2043469.html

So Hodgson just popped over to Spain for a sombrero and a straw donkey then?

Hicks and Gillett given just 11 days to accept Chinese bid Torres returns to find club owners under pressure from banks to accept £300m deal By Ian Herbert Tuesday, 3 August 2010 Liverpool have 11 days to consider the take-it-or-leave it offer for the club made by the Chinese businessman who says he is backed by sovereign funds, although doubts remain about whether this bid, or one of as many as five others, will be successful, with the club's investment bankers indicating a preferred bid will be selected by next week. Some critical details of Kenny Huang's bid remain vague, including the precise nature of the Chinese state-owned investment funds which sources close to him claim will deliver the money. It is also unclear whether the trenchant opposition from Liverpool co-owner George Gillett, which is probably shared by his partner at Anfield, Tom Hicks – Huang's bid which could see them make a loss on their initial investment in the club – will prevent the Liverpool board from sanctioning them. But the club's non-executive chairman Martin Broughton and investment bank Barclays Capital, who are leading the sale of Liverpool, do consider the bid to be credible. Mr Huang has imposed a deadline of Friday-week because he and his backers want enough time to give Roy Hodgson money to spend in the summer transfer market before it closes on 1 September. It appears Broughton believes he can drive through a deal in the face of opposition from Hicks and Gillett. Having taken up his position on the understanding that a three-man majority on the Liverpool board would be enough to see Hicks and Gillett voted down, it remains unclear whether he has some duty to the Americans who hired him. Broughton, Hicks, Gillett, Liverpool managing director Christian Purslow and commercial director Ian Ayre each have a vote. The bid, which would see the Chinese guaranteeing the £237m debt built up by the Americans, is certainly a serious one, although Liverpool's owners will bitterly resist a bid which would see them taking nothing from the club, despite their own £130m investment. The fact there are multiple bids under consideration reveals that the end-game has arrived for Hicks and Gillett. Broughton feels his duty is to the club rather than the owners and will not necessarily go for the highest offer, as the sale of the club to owners who ultimately prove unreliable would damage his reputation. It remains unclear whether Broughton, who will leave when a sale is completed, will be rewarded financially by the Americans for the size of the bid he agrees to. The club's bankers, Royal Bank of Scotland, have said they are not in direct negotiations with Huang over the purchase of the club and that any bid would be referred to Liverpool, though Huang's representatives suggested that he had bypassed the Liverpool bidding process by going directly to the bank with what for Hicks and Gillett is effectively a hostile bid. In a day of denial and counter-denial, it emerged that it is a contest which is under way to become the club's preferred bidder, rather than a one-horse race for Mr Huang. Mystery surrounds the Chinese businessman's track record. He did not, as has been suggested, take a share in the Cleveland Cavaliers National Basketball Association last year. But his representatives said he was keen to do a deal quickly to secure investment before the transfer window closes and then turn his attention to finally getting Liverpool's new 60,000-seat stadium built in Stanley Park after three years of inertia. "He wants to get it done quickly so investment can come this summer," said a source close to the bid. "Liverpool need investment in the playing squad and infrastructure and Huang wants to build the stadium. The club has an outstanding reputation but does not have the infrastructure to keep with it." Whether or not Huang's bid proves successful, the timing of his disclosures has certainly been effective, providing a sense of movement on the ownership stalemate on the very day Fernando Torres returned to training following his summer break. Torres declared last season that Liverpool need 'four or five' new players and the movement at the club suggests there may be funds available. Securing a deal before the transfer window closes may not be straightforward, though, as the time between agreement to an individual offer and completion can be weeks. THE BUYING GAME: ANFIELD'S MANY SUITORS SO FAR Since Tom Hicks and George Gillett took over in February 2007, the club has attracted a succession of uber-wealthy – and exotic – parties from around the globe reported to be interested in buying out the unpopular American duo. There are six bids on the Anfield table now, but among those who have been said to be keen on a takeover in the past are: THE BUYING GAME ANFIELD’S MANY SUITORS SO FAR It was in February that Mukesh Ambani, the seventh richest man in the world, and Subrata Roy, chairman of the Sahara group, a huge Indian conglomerate, were said to be mounting a joint bid to takeover 51 per cent of the club. A day later a spokesperson for Ambani's Reliance Industries said: "There is no truth to the report. We deny it completely." The IPL owner Grandhi Mallikarjuna Rao was already the owner of a cricket team – the Delhi Daredevils of the Indian Premier League – and was said to be interested in getting involved in football. As a Liverpool fan, Anfield was flagged up as the object of his investment. His representatives watched the 4-4 draw with Arsenal in April amid speculation of a £500m takeover that came to nothing at the time. The Chinese gaming tycoon In May Zhu Jun held at least two meetings with Barclays Capital, the company charged with finding a buyer. Zhu already owns the Chinese club, Shanghai Shenhua. The 44-year-old made his fortune through online gaming although he is not in the same financial league as most of the other reported buyers and would have needed to conduct a leveraged buyout. The Syrian footballer Over the weekend it was claimed that Yahya Kirdi, a former Syrian international, was heading a consortium of Arab businessmen looking to buy out the Americans. Gillett informed Royal Bank of Scotland of Kirdi's interest – he is a friend of Gillett's son, Foster – in a move that has widely been dismissed as a stalling tactic against Huang's approach to RBS. The Arabs Dubai International Capital have long held an interest in taking control at Anfield. Even before Hicks and Gillett's ill-fated tenure began three years ago, DIC, the investment arm of Dubai's ruling family led by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, were linked with the club. They have maintained their interest on and off ever since and there have been reports this summer that they are back in the game. In 2008 Sheikh Mohammed had even considered making his own bid for the club. http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/hicks-and-gillett-given-just-11-days-to-accept-chinese-bid-2041712.html

Terrible news this. Hope he gets through it.

There are always one or two of those about everywhere.

Aurelio got a thigh injury against Blackburn in February which finished him for the season. When exactly was he not played when fit due to Rafa being "political"?

No.

You really think that Benitez won't have any input on transfer targets?

I'm about 200 pages in and there has been a disappointing lack of blue after its early promise

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Haha, I was wondering that. When would a week of posh dinners for his wife to be cost £360?

It’s bloody funny though. In fact pretty much the only football related thing that has brought a smile to my face this summer has been watching the sack-Rafa tag-team slowly twist themselves in knots trying to justify the positions into which they have been inexorably driven by the logic of their stance over the last few months.

Of course, but someone who has previously stated that the manager would be incredibly stupid to take on the job without discussing the transfer budget (if any) has to try and put some sort of gloss on the situation when said manager explicitly states that he has had no discussions regarding the transfer budget. Calling people stupid when they point this out is just one tactic.

He's just being a sarky t***.

Love this. I'm in. Ordered but yet to be dispatched.

Roy Hodgson has been appointed the new manager of Liverpool FC. The 62-year-old former Fulham, Inter Milan and Switzerland manager has agreed terms with the club on a three-year contract and becomes the 18th manager in our history. He will be unveiled to the world's media this afternoon after overseeing the first day of pre-season training at Melwood. Hodgson joins us from Fulham, where he guided the Cottagers to the Europa League final in May and was voted Manager of the Year by the League Managers' Association. He exclusively told Liverpoolfc.tv: "This is the biggest job in club football and I'm honoured to be taking on the role of manager of Britain's most successful football club. I look forward to meeting the players and the supporters and getting down to work at Melwood." http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/latest-news/liverpool-appoint-hodgson?

“Roy’s Italian roots“

We'd have had 'em.

Moyes has just asked if Uruguay v Mexico is a derby.

Sh*t support from the South Africans. Half of them have gone home.

Pesky facts!

I’m renewing today but I’m not doing the auto-ticket scheme.

That's a £50 increase for mine. About 7.5% up on last year. C*nts.

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