Sąd z Teksasu zablokował sprzedaż klubu z Anglii spółce z Nowej AngliiLiverpool owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett said a Texas court gave a temporary restraining order blocking the sale of their English Premier League soccer club.
The Americans are trying to stop the forced sale of Liverpool and are asking for $1.6 billion in damages. Judge Jim Jordan of the 160th District Court in Dallas gave the restraining order, and will hear the arguments Oct. 25, the owners said today in an e-mailed statement.
The legal move comes hours after Hicks and Gillett lost a case in London to their lender, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, and as the team’s directors met to discuss the possible sale to the owners of the Boston Red Sox.
“The director defendants were acting merely as pawns of RBS, wholly abdicating the fiduciary responsibilities that they owed in the sale,” Hicks and Gillett said in their e-mail.
“RBS has been complicit in this scheme with the director defendants,” the owners said. “For example, in letters from RBS to potential investors obtained just within the past few days, RBS has informed investors that it will approve of a deal only if there is ‘no economic return to equity’ for Messrs. Hicks and Gillett.”
Liverpool’s board last week agreed to sell the soccer club to John W. Henry and Tom Werner’s New England Sports Ventures LLC for 300 million pounds ($475 million). Hicks and Gillett tried to stop the sale by changing the independent members of their board, but Justice Christopher Floyd today ruled they had to reinstate the ousted members. Liverpool Chairman Martin Broughton says the owners would lose about 140 million pounds if the New England group’s bid goes through.
The owners say the price is too low, and the board ignored other bidders.
Since their 219 million-pound leveraged buyout in 2007, Hicks and Gillett have had disputes between themselves and met with fan opposition over rising debt and their failure to build a promised new stadium.
Widać ze Hicks (z Teksasu) jest zdesperowany.po polsku:
Amerykańscy właściciele Liverpoolu, Tom Hicks i George Gillett, wydali wieczorem oświadczenie, w którym poinformowali o tymczasowym nakazie sądu w Teksasie, wstrzymania sprzedaży klubu i określili próbę przeprowadzenia transakcji 'przekrętem'.
Hicks i Gillett poinformowali, że pozwą trzech członków zarządu Liverpoolu, bank kontrolujący dług klubu i przyszłego kupca - konsorcjum New England Sports Ventures, domagając się w sumie 1,6 miliardów dolarów (ponad miliard funtów), gdyż ich zdaniem cena klubu została zaniżona o setki milionów dolarów.
Oświadczenie pojawiło się w czasie gdy John W Henry będący przedstawicielem NESV spotkał się z trzema angielskimi członkami zarządu w celu potwierdzenia sprzedaży.