Another investor mulling Liverpool bid, says Harris
A MYSTERY would-be buyer has already completed due diligence on Liverpool and is weighing up whether to make a bid, according to high-profile financier Keith Harris.
Chinese businessman Kenny Huang last week ended his flirtation with buying the club, which has debts of around £280m, after emerging as the latest interested party.
But Harris, who has earned a reputation as football’s Mr Fix-It by helping broker takeovers at several Premier League clubs, says he is advising another overseas investor who has already examined Liverpool’s books.
“The ball is now in our client’s court to make an offer,” said Harris, chairman of City investment bank Seymour Pierce. “I do not think the deal will be done before the transfer window closes this month but the next pressure point is October when some of the RBS loan of £237m has to be repaid. It may happen then. But in the present climate these things are impossible to predict.”
Harris refuses to divulge his client’s identity, saying only: “It is none of the groups mentioned in the press.”
He added: “In any takeover situation, when people resort to announcing it to the media, you have to question the seriousness of the offer.
“If the name of the prospective buyer comes out before the deal is done then probably it is never going to be done.”