Texas court injunction delays sale of Liverpool FC
The sale of Liverpool FC to New England Sport Ventures (NESV) has been put on hold after a Texas court granted an injunction to co-owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks.
Expert litigator Tom Cruise of the law firm Baker and Hostetler (from the Texas branch), pointed out, "The judge said that he based his ruling solely on the unsubstantiated allegations of Hicks and Gillett, but the buyers will have their day in court to
present their evidence and, even in Texas, courts will respect the ruling of a High Court in London."
Hicks and Gillett's claim is that the club was being undersold and that rival bids were not being given due consideration, which is what stands at the heart of the opposition to the sale-a bid which was initially dismissed by the High Court.
The Liverpool board will now seek a bid to overturn the Texas court's decision by appealing again to the Royal Courts of Justice.
The Royal Bank of Scotland, the club's main creditor, is seeking to recoup £200 million in loans and had threatened to place the club into administration if a new owner was not found by October 15. Administration comes with a nine-point penalty, which would
hurt Liverpool, especially since the team is already mired at the bottom the English Premier League.
Two other bidding parties have emerged and one of them, proposed by Mill Financial, appears as if it could become a serious contender, with the sale really coming down to who can pay off RBS first.
Brian Alexander of Radio 5 live said, "It looks to me as if Mill Financial, the hedge fund owned by Dwight Schar, have now edged ahead in a three-horse race."
"If they repay the £200m to RBS, it will put Mill very much in the driving seat, and as a result of that, the deal with NESV and John Henry would collapse."
That third horse described by Alexander is a bid by Singapore businessman Peter Lim.
The Liverpool board has vowed to move swiftly to resolve the issue and have the restraining order removed, and will hope to have been successful in their bid by as early as Thursday, October 14.
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