The Chinese Government is the mystery backer behind a bid for Liverpool Football Club, The Times can reveal.
China’s overseas investment arm China Investment Corporation (CIC), which already owns a stake in Canary Wharf, is funding the bid fronted by the sports tycoon Kenny Huang for one of Britain’s biggest sporting names.
The debt-laden club is expected to change hands this month and last night the Chinese appeared to be in pole position to win a three-way takeover battle. The other bidders are a wealthy Kuwaiti family and an American private equity group.
Liverpool’s lender, the Royal Bank of Scotland, forced the club’s unpopular American owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, to put it up for sale in April. A number of potential foreign buyers have been circling, but until now the role of the Communist Government was unknown.
The acquisition would be just a tiny piece of China’s vast global investment plan. CIC was created in 2007 to invest billions of dollars for the benefit of the State. The country has been able to stockpile nearly $2 trillion of foreign currency reserves because it exports many more billions of pounds of goods and services than it imports. CIC has $332 billion to spend abroad.
The fund already has stakes in natural resources and energy companies in Asia, the US and Africa as part of China’s long-term strategy of securing its energy supplies. Liverpool would be its first football club and a high-profile entry into British cultural life.
Neither CIC nor Mr Huang was available for comment last night, but insiders said that CIC would end up owning the majority of the club if the consortium’s planned bid — which values Liverpool at between £300 million and £350 million — is successful.
China is not the first foreign country to covet English Premier League teams. Arsenal, Aston Villa, Birmingham, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City and Sunderland are all in foreign hands.
Manchester City, which is owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, a senior member of the Royal Family in Abu Dhabi, and Chelsea, owned by the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, were bought as trophy assets. The owners have poured in money without seeking a profit.
It is believed that the Chinese would expect to make money by building a bigger stadium in Merseyside and developing the club’s Asian fan base.
Liverpool already has a sponsorship deal with the bank Standard Chartered, which focuses on Asia. Presenting the bank’s half-year results yesterday, Peter Sands, its chief executive, said that its sponsorship of Liverpool was the most cost-effective way of getting Standard Chartered’s name on to television screens across Asia.
The sale is being run by Barcap, Barclays’ investment banking arm, and Martin Broughton, chairman of British Airways, who was brought in as temporary chairman of the club in April.
Insiders said that it was a three-way contest between the Chinese, Rhône Capital, a private equity group, and the billionare al-Kharafi family of Kuwait.
Any buyer must be cleared by the Premier League, which has held talks with the bidders. The main test is financial and it is unlikely that a bid would be blocked from the cash-rich Chinese.
Mr Huang reiterated his interest in Liverpool through his PR firm Hill & Knowlton yesterday but said that he had yet to make a formal binding bid.
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Huang set to give Hodgson £150m vote of confidence
Tony Barrett, Tony Evans
Updated 21 minutes ago
Roy Hodgson will keep his job as Liverpool manager and be handed £150 million to spend on new players if the Chinese Government’s bid to buy the club proves successful.
As revealed in The Times today, Kenny Huang, the Hong Kong-based businessman, is fronting the bid by China Investment Corporation (CIC), the overseas investment arm of the Chinese Government. A formal offer has still to be lodged, but although there is interest from other parties, Huang — backed by the wealth of one of the fastest-growing economies in the world — is believed to be the front-runner to complete a purchase.
CIC is prepared to back Hodgson by bankrolling a number of high-profile signings and has made a commitment to build a new stadium.
Liverpool are also attracting interest from the Rhône Group, the New York-based fund management firm, and the al-Kharafi family from Kuwait. Yahya Kirdi, a Canadian-based businessman from Syria, claimed yesterday that he is close to finalising a deal, but it is understood that he is negotiating only with George Gillett Jr, the club’s co-owner, and has not been involved with RBS, which holds Liverpool’s £237 million debt, or Barclays Capital, the investment bank overseeing the sale.
After his appointment as the successor to Rafael Benítez in July, Hodgson said that the possibility of a takeover had been a factor in discussions before he signed a three-year contract and revealed that clauses had been inserted in the deal affording him financial protection in the event of new owners deciding to replace him as manager.
The Chinese, though, have no desire to dispose of the 62-year-old, who insists that the situation has not prevented him from going about his job in the right manner.
“I knew when I came to the club that a takeover may or may not come about, that it may come about quickly or it may take a lot of time,” Hodgson said. “But I was given assurances that I would be allowed to do the job in the right way and that’s certainly been the case since I’ve been here.”
Asked would it be easier for the club to plan ahead under new owners, he said: “That’s for sure. But I don’t want to go down the ownership route because I don’t know enough about it, apart from knowing that, at the moment, 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.”
Hodgson takes charge of Liverpool at Anfield for the first time tonight when his team take a 2-0 lead into the second leg of the Europa League third qualifying round tie with Rabotnicki, of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The manager is not willing to allow either himself or his players to hide behind the uncertainty surrounding the club, and insists that they must be masters of their own fortune.
Fernando Torres, who pledged his commitment to Liverpool yesterday, had recently called on the club to match his ambition by signing “four or five” top-class players, but Hodgson says that it is the responsibility of those already at the club to shape the future.
“As a player you have the chance to change things,” Hodgson said. “If you don’t think the team is doing as well as it should, as a player you can do something about it. If you are a big player, maybe you will. My attitude is that we want our big players because they are big players and they will help the team to win.
“Now if they are not playing well and not helping the team to win, I will be advising them to look into the mirror rather than look for excuses elsewhere and blame the owners for not having spent £500 million.
“I am just sceptical about comments where players are questioning the club’s ambition.”
