Hicks Retains His Shares

Liverpool co-owner Tom Hicks
remains in control of his share of
the club and has not sold out to
Mill Financial, Press Association
Sport has been told.
Reports on Thursday morning
suggested the hedge fund, a
branch of Washington-based
Springfield Financial, had
acquired the Texan's 50 per cent
share having already taken
ownership of his fellow co-
owner George Gillett's half.
However, a UK-based spokesman
for Tom Hicks told Press
Association Sport Mill Financial
had not acquired Hicks' shares.
That stance appears to be
backed up by Royal Bank of
Scotland, the club's major
creditors whose deadline for the
repayment of a £237million loan
expires on Friday, and the
Premier League.
The bank has not had any recent
contact with Mill Financial while
no approach has been made to
the Premier League to notify
them of another potential
change of ownership.
Doubts still remain over the
ownership and it is not beyond
the realms of possibility that Mill
Financial could still make a move
to acquire Hicks' share.
That would then put them in a
position where, if they were able
to repay RBS, any prospective
sale to New England Sports
Ventures - who have agreed a
£300million deal - could be in
jeopardy.
But there are numerous variables
to the saga, the first of which will
be decided at the Royal Courts of
Justice this afternoon.
RBS and Liverpool are returning
to the High Court to block a
temporary restraining order
taken out by Hicks and Gillett in
Texas on Wednesday night.
The injunction, which also
included a claim for damages of
more than £1billion, was
imposed just minutes before a
board meeting at which
chairman Martin Broughton,
managing director Christian
Purslow and commercial director
Ian Ayre out-voted Hicks and
Gillett to complete the sale to
NESV.
That was just hours after Mr
Justice Floyd, who will hear the
RBS/Liverpool application this
afternoon, had ruled the
American owners had no right to
block a sale.