Liverpool Gives August 12 Deadline To Bidders To Show Money

Liverpool is asking potential bidders to prove they can come up with the money to buy the 18- time English soccer champion before the club’s board meets Aug. 12, two people familiar with the negotiations said.

The four remaining bidders for the club must show how they intend to pay back 237 million pounds ($377 million) owed to Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, finance a replacement for the 126-year-old Anfield stadium, and pay for additional players, said the two people, who spoke anonymously because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.

Liverpool spokesman Ian Cotton said the club doesn’t comment on the sales process.

American owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks put the club up for sale in April, hiring Barclays Capital. They bought it in 2007 for 219 million pounds, or $431.7 million at the exchange rate then. Now the team’s parent company, Kop Football (Holdings) Ltd., has 351.5 million pounds of debt, according to its most recent filing at Companies House.

New York-based private equity firm Rhone Group LLC and a group led by Kuwaiti businessman Rafed Al Kharafi have expressed interest in the team, the people said yesterday. Hong Kong’s QSL Sports Ltd. and Syrian businessman Yahya Kirdi said last week they were in negotiations to buy the club. Sahara India Pariwar, which has holdings in finance, media and consumer products, yesterday said it won’t bid “at least for the time being.”

The bidders are valuing the club at about 350 million pounds in presentations to BarCap, the investment banking arm of Barclays Plc, and Liverpool Chairman Martin Broughton, the people said. Kirdi’s valuation is higher, they added. Hicks and Gillett would make a profit if the Kirdi bid is accepted, according to Kirdi’s broker, Dan Diamond.

Board Vote

Liverpool’s five-person board of Broughton, Hicks, Gillett, Commercial Director Ian Ayre and Managing Director Christian Purslow will meet Aug. 12. Each has a vote.

The 237-million pound debt facility owed to RBS matures on Oct. 6. If the club isn’t sold by then and the owners can’t get an extension, the bank, which is controlled by the U.K. government, could take over Liverpool.

QSL Sports was co-founded by Guang Yang, who’s also an executive vice president at Franklin Templeton Investments and chief investment officer of China Life/Franklin Templeton. Yang’s involvement in the bidding is not linked to the funds.

“This is completely unconnected to his role at Franklin Templeton,” QSL said in an e-mailed statement, after newspaper reports tied the bid to the fund. The statement follows an earlier denial that China Investment Co., China’s sovereign wealth fund, is backing the bid.

Jonathon Brill, a spokesman for Liverpool’s owners, declined to comment.

Season Start

Liverpool, a five-time European champion, begins its Premier League season Aug. 15 against Arsenal. Diamond said he’d hoped to have an agreement by then.

Gillett and Hicks’s three-year ownership has been marked by fan protests against their ownership. Supporters have been critical of the debt, and that the pair failed to deliver a promised new stadium to replace the 45,000-seat Anfield.

The club’s seventh-place league finish last season was its worst in 11 years.