A ruling will be given in the Liverpool case in the High Court at 10 a.m. tomorrow. This follows a day in which learned counsel were arguing on behalf of five different parties to the dispute. The High Court bill is estimated to have already reached £500,000 and may yet go over £1m. However, it is important to emphasise that is one of two cases affecting the club.
A ruling will be given in the Liverpool case in the High Court at 10 a.m. tomorrow. This follows a day in which learned counsel were arguing on behalf of five different parties to the dispute. The High Court bill is estimated to have already reached £500,000 and may yet go over £1m. However, it is important to emphasise that is one of two cases affecting the club.
What was being considered today was an injunction taken out on Friday by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) against Hicks and Gillett to prevent them sacking the Liverpool board. RBS argued that the attempt by the American owners to remove two directors amounted to a breach of contract. Hicks and Gillett had, according to RBS, had agreed in writing that only chairman Martin Broughton could change the board membership.
A separate case will rule through a ‘declaratory judgment’ whether the board has the authority to sell the club to New England Sports Ventures (NESV) without the consent of shareholders. This is less straightforward as it rests on whether the £300m offered by NESV is a reasonable price or one that undervalues the club.
One further fact that has emerged is that Kop Holdings, the holding company for the club, is in technical default on its holdings to RBS and Wachovia. The default was triggered because Gillett went into techical breach on a loan from Mill Financial. That default triggered a change of control clause on the loan to Kop Holdings.