New Liverpool chairman Martin Broughton says it's realistic to think a buyer for the 18-time English soccer champion will be found before the start of the 2010-11 Premier League season in August.
Broughton, whose appointment was confirmed by the club yesterday, is charged with overseeing a sale.
"What I'm asking
from Liverpool fans is a little patience," said Broughton, who is also the chairman of British Airways. "We are talking a maximum of a few months. It's in everyone's interests we get the right owners, therefore I'm looking for the time to complete this process."
Co-owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks have been granted an extension to a £237 million ($514 million) loan facility with Royal Bank of Scotland and Wachovia until the sale is complete, Broughton, 63, said. The Americans had been told no extension would be granted unless they paid down £100 million of the debt.
"What RBS has done is given us an extension which gives us time to complete the process," Broughton said. "We didn't want to have a situation where a bidder had negotiating leverage because we were coming against a deadline."
The Sunday Telegraph reports that Hicks hopes Liverpool will be sold for as much as £800 million.
Gillett and Hicks have been the subject of fan anger after failing to follow through on promises of a new 70,000-seat stadium and because they loaded debt on the club to pay for their £174 million purchase in February 2007.
They also assumed £45 million of debt that was already on the team's books. Broughton said the owners have taken the five-time European champion as far as they can. He said they should be acclaimed for growing the club's revenue by 55 per cent during their tenure.
BA is working on a merger with Spanish carrier Iberia and is also locked in pay negotiations with unions that have led to strikes by its cabin crew.
Broughton said he's not concerned about dividing his time between the two portfolios.
"I'm perfectly comfortable that I can do the two roles."
- BLOOMBERG
