Tuesday, March 24, 2009

No decision on selling Liverpool stake: Gillett

LONDON: Liverpool co-owner George Gillett Jr. has not yet made a decision about whether to sell his 50 percent stake in the Premier League club or offload the Montreal Canadiens.

Gillett has hired financial companies in Canada, the United States and Europe to reassess his varied holdings.

"We have appointed advisers in different countries to assess our assets," Gillett said Tuesday. "We have engaged professionals who are doing some estate planning, it has nothing to do with any decisions to sell any assets.

"We may do some recapitalization, but any links between what we are doing and the situation at Liverpool is incorrect. We have made no decision to sell."

At Liverpool, which Gillett co-owns with Tom Hicks, a July deadline is approaching to refinance the loan that funded their takeover two years ago.

That financing package of about 250 million pounds ($368.2 million) must be renewed after a six-month extension was granted by the Royal Bank of Scotland and US investment bank Wachovia. But RBS recently announced huge losses amid the global economic downturn and may not be in a position to extend further financing.

Liverpool is in second place in the Premier League - one point behind Manchester United - and has reached the quarterfinals of the Champions League.

Selling his Liverpool stake would require the approval of Hicks, but Gillett owns 80.1 percent of the Canadiens and the Bell Centre.

Gillett bought the Canadiens and their arena in 2001 for $275 million with the help of $140 million in loans from two banks and the Quebec pension fund. He also owns the Gillett Evernham NASCAR team, event promoter Gillett Entertainment Group, ski resorts, car dealerships and agricultural companies.

Source:http://sports.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/?frm_TOIHome_top

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