Liverpool in talks over £125m investment from Arab prince

[Elano]

Liverpool co-owner George Gillett was in talks on Saturday night about selling a 25 per cent stake in the Anfield club to an Arab prince in a deal worth £125million.

Sunday Mirror Sport understands that Gillett has met with Prince Khalid al-Faisal and members of of the Saudi royal family about investment opportunities at Liverpool.

Discussions initially began about various commercial projects but quickly progressed into talks aimed at bringing the prince in as a co-owner to work alongside Gillett and his fellow American Tom Hicks.

Any share deal would require the blessing of Hicks before it could be rubber-stamped. And although Hicks is yet to meet personally with Prince Khalid, it is understood that the Texan is ready to welcome a new partner if the terms of the deal are right.

Hicks and Gillett have been searching the Middle East for potential investors to ease the burden of the club’s £300m debts.

Liverpool had a record turnover last year and have just announced football’s biggest shirt sponsorship deal, worth £20m-a-year with Standard Chartered Bank.

But the club has been unable to finance the construction of a new 60,000-capacity stadium at Stanley Park because of the credit crunch.

And manager Rafa Benitez has been told that he must work within a strict transfer budget of £20m-a-year.

[Elano]

Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Liverpool co-owner George Gillett plans to meet with members of a Gulf royal family to discuss developing soccer academies in the Middle East and North Africa.

Gillett, a part-owner of Nascar’s Richard Petty Motorsports, told Bloomberg News that the sides will also talk at tomorrow’s Premier League match with Hull about building Nascar-style race tracks in the Middle East.

“We are constantly looking for ways to expand our presence throughout the world and this is one step we are considering,” Gillett said in a telephone interview.

Gillett and his partner Tom Hicks are looking to raise funds to restart work on a new stadium for the 18-time English league champion and reduce debt of 240 million pounds ($386 million) with Royal Bank of Scotland Plc and Wachovia Corp. It’s unclear if a future equity investment will be discussed with the Mideast group.

Earlier this week, Bloomberg News revealed details of a March 2009 document prepared by the club’s bankers Rothschild and Merrill Lynch that proposed raising 100 million pounds, through an equity sale and new loans, to pay down existing debts. In July, the owners used 50 million pounds of their own money to refinance the debt.

The document also revealed a number of revenue-boosting plans, which included converting 1,000 regular seats into corporate seating and a push to build branded academies overseas. Some of the best young players from the foreign training centers will be invited to practice at Liverpool’s main development facility.

Shirt Sponsor

Liverpool’s financial status received a boost last week when it announced a record sponsorship with Standard Chartered Plc, which will pay about 20 million pounds a season to replace Carlsberg A/S on the front of the players’ shirts. The deal is around 6 million pounds more than the club forecast it would get if it renewed with Carlsberg.

Some of that new money is likely to go toward improving the club’s financial position.

In June, Liverpool’s parent company, Kop Football (Holdings) Ltd., announced a loss of 42.6 million pounds for the year ended July 2008 on interest charges of 36.5 million pounds. Liverpool plans to increase commercial revenue to 111.4 million pounds from 59 million pounds in the next five years, according to the investment document.

[KURUPTION-81]

So now there will be three chairman who dont get on rather than two .