An Indian billionaire is the latest person to register an interest in buying Liverpool football club. Apparently the Sahara Group, owned by Subrata Roy, has been trying to negotiate with the club for several months, but the deal has stalled on debt concerns. Reasonably enough the Sahara Group thinks that given the size of Liverpool’s debt the current owners should lower their asking price.
An Indian billionaire is the latest person to register an interest in buying Liverpool football club. Apparently the Sahara Group, owned by Subrata Roy, has been trying to negotiate with the club for several months, but the deal has stalled on debt concerns. Reasonably enough the Sahara Group thinks that given the size of Liverpool’s debt the current owners should lower their asking price.
Kenny Huang remains the front runner, although the Chinese Investment Corporation have distanced themselves from the bid and there are some doubts about what assets Huang has himself. His only formal roles are as an investor in a fledgling minor league Chinese basketball team, a Chinese basketball magazine and two sports marketing companies – in Beijing and the US – neither of which has more than 15 employees. Reports that he was a 15 per cent owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team appear to have no basis in fact.
There had been reports that Yang Guang, a portfolio manager at fund management company Franklin Templeton, had been securing funding for the Huang bid, but any involvement has been denied both by the fund and on behalf of Mr Guang. So is Kenny Huang just a front man, but if so for whom and is the cash really there?