Liverpool FC sale explored by US owners Fenway Sports Group
Move comes months after Chelsea FC was sold to consortium led by American financier Todd Boehly for £2.5bn
Fenway Sports Group is in the early stages of exploring a sale for Liverpool FC, people familiar with the matter said, making the English Premier League side the latest prestige sports asset to come on the market.
Boston-based FSG is being advised by Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley after it was approached by at least one potential buyer, according to two of the people.
In a statement, FSG said it frequently received interest “from third parties seeking to become shareholders in Liverpool. FSG has said before that under the right terms and conditions we would consider new shareholders if it was in the best interests of Liverpool as a club.”
News of the potential sale was earlier reported by The Athletic.
FSG’s decision to explore a Liverpool sale comes months after Chelsea FC was sold by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich to a consortium led by US financier Todd Boehly for £2.5bn.
During the sale process Chelsea received more than 200 bids, highlighting the strong appetite for Premier League teams. In addition to Boehly, Chelsea received serious bids from private equity tycoon Josh Harris and another from British industrialist Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
Since FSG acquired the club in 2010, Liverpool have won both a Champions League and Premier League trophy and is valued by Forbes at $4.45bn. FSG is the parent company for Liverpool, baseball’s Boston Red Sox and hockey’s Pittsburgh Penguins, one of the more prolific dealmaking sports empires in the US. It is controlled by John Henry, a self-made billionaire in commodities trading, who has been a reticent public figure.
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Asset Management: Elliott warns of more pain to come
Plus, Vanguard’s UK funds upended, disappointing results for US corporates and the culinary delights of Notting Hill
Singer warns of hyperinflation risk, societal collapse
Paul Singer, the billionaire founder of Elliott Management, is known for some rather bearish views over the years, but the firm’s latest musings have taken that caution to a whole new level.
In its most recent letter to investors, the roughly $56bn hedge fund warns of a potentially catastrophic outcome for the global economy as policymakers battle high inflation and looming recession, writes Laurence Fletcher.
The world is “on the path to hyperinflation”, which could lead, Elliott bluntly states, to “global societal collapse”.
The coming financial crisis could exceed anything seen since the second world war, it adds, and investors should not think that they have “seen everything” simply because they have lived through past calamities such as the 1970s oil shock, the dotcom bust or the 2008 financial crisis.
Elliott has long been critical of central bankers’ ultra-loose monetary policy since the 2008 financial crisis, and it did not waste this opportunity to hold them to account, labelling them “dishonest” about the causes of inflation.
The hedge fund reckons investors will find it difficult to make money and says that equity markets could drop 50 per cent from peak to trough, which would mean the S&P is not even halfway through its fall.
While starker than many, Elliott’s warning is not the only one to come from a big-name hedge fund manager recently.
Boaz Weinstein, the founder of Saba Capital credited with spotting the “London whale” a decade ago, recently told the FT that global stocks could be heading for a Japan-style bear market lasting decades and that “there isn’t a rainbow at the end of all this.”
Equity bulls have clung for some time to the prospect that the US Federal Reserve will somehow be able quickly to tame inflation, while also engineering a soft economic landing. That, in theory, should allow them to resume looser monetary policy again in the not-too-distant future.
Elliott’s warnings highlight how badly wrong the bulls could be. With a record of only two negative years since launch in 1977, would you bet against Singer being right?
Gold Fields rules out increasing offer for rival Yamana
Joint bid of $4.8bn from precious metals groups Pan American and Agnico Eagle trumps South African miner’s offer
Gold Fields has decided against increasing its offer for rival miner Yamana Gold after a surprise joint bid by a pair of competitors threw the proposed takeover into jeopardy.
The board said in a stock exchange statement on Monday that sticking with the original all-stock offer was based on its “commitment to capital discipline” and considerations of “fairness” for shareholders in Gold Fields and Yamana over the long term.
On Friday, precious metals mining groups Pan American and Agnico Eagle unveiled a rival stock and cash deal worth $4.8bn to split Yamana’s assets between them, trumping the bid made by South Africa’s Gold Fields at the end of May.
The initial all-stock offer by Gold Fields valued Canada’s Yamana at $6.7bn but a drop in Gold Fields’ share price driven by investor disappointment at the deal and softer gold prices brought the value of the offer down to approximately $4bn as of last week.
The fragmented gold sector, which has a reputation for overspending, poor capital discipline and excessive executive pay in North America, has been undergoing consolidation in recent years.
The takeover battle comes as gold mining companies struggle to deal with sharply rising costs for inputs such as fuel, cyanide and explosives.
The merger of Gold Fields and Yamana would have created the fourth-largest gold mining company in the world but Gold Fields came under fire from its shareholders who viewed the deal as expensive and dilutive.
Gold Fields shares, down 0.2 per cent in early Monday trading, have fallen nearly 12 per cent this year. Yamana stock has risen 24 per cent this year.
Creditor Oaktree sells Evergrande’s ‘Versailles mansion’ plot in Hong Kong
Heavily indebted Chinese developer takes $770mn loss on one of its most significant assets
Oaktree Capital has sold a vast plot of land seized from Evergrande in Hong Kong that was intended for the construction of a Versailles-inspired mansion, forcing the heavily indebted Chinese property developer to take a $770mn loss on one of its most significant assets.
Evergrande said receivers of the plot, codenamed “Project Castle” because the developer’s chair had intended to build his own mansion on the site, sold it for about $637mn to repay debts connected to the project, according to a Sunday filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange. The land was taken over by Oaktree in January.
The distressed debt investor had appointed a receiver to seize control of the of the 2.2mn sq ft plot after Evergrande defaulted on a loan against which it had security. A person familiar with the matter said Oaktree had recouped its investment plus interest.
The seizure by Oaktree, which has also taken control of an Evergrande plot called “Project Venice” near Shanghai, was one of the most high-profile plays made by offshore creditors to claim the developers’ assets.
Oaktree declined to comment. Evergrande did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
China’s property sector has struggled with a liquidity crisis over the past year, with a wave of real estate companies defaulting.
The Evergrande sale is one of the earliest indications of the losses Chinese property developers are exposed to as they rush to sell assets in order to meet their vast debts.
The real estate companies have often struggled to sell their assets, prolonging a crisis that began after many of them ran out of cash following tighter government restrictions on leverage in 2021.
Evergrande has around $300bn of liabilities, about $20bn of which are held by offshore bondholders. The developer did not provide a restructuring plan after missing a July deadline for one this year. Creditors have seized Evergrande’s assets as they push for repayments.
Last week, Evergrande chair Hui Ka Yan lost his luxury mansion in the exclusive Peak neighbourhood in Hong Kong after it was taken over by state-owned China Construction Bank (Asia).
Evergrande’s Hong Kong headquarters in Wan Chai was seized in September by lenders led by China Citic Bank International, the Hong Kong subsidiary of the state-owned bank. The building was pledged in exchange for a loan of HK$7.6bn (US$968mn) with restructuring company Alvarez & Marsal appointed as the receiver.
A source close to the sale told the Financial Times the building had gained interest from more than 30 prospective buyers, including Chinese state-owned enterprises, and was valued at around HK$8bn-9bn.
"Give Kremlin A Warning": US 'Nuclear Apocalypse' Submarine Enters Mediterranean Sea
Multiple reports show the world's largest nuclear submarine, the USS Rhode Island, left the Port of Gibraltar on Spain's south coast last week and was last seen entering the Mediterranean. British newspaper Daily Express said the nuclear submarine is "reportedly heading towards the Black Sea."
The Italian newspaper la Repubblica said USS Rhode Island, which arrived in Gibraltar on Nov. 1, entered the Mediterranean Sea on Friday. The Ohio-class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine can carry 24 Trident II missiles capable of hitting targets 18 thousand kilometers away.
"Rhode Island emerges in Gibraltar, armed with intercontinental missiles and hundreds of nuclear warheads. On a mission to give the Kremlin a warning," La Repubblica wrote.
Earlier this week, Captain John Craddock, commander of the US Navy's Task Force 69, said:
"Rhode Island's port visit to Gibraltar reinforces our ironclad commitment to our allies and partners in the region."The US and UK share a strong history of cooperation, through exercises, operations, and cooperation activities such as this, that enhance our combined capabilities and partnership."The complexity, lethality, and tactical expertise of Rhode Island epitomises the effectiveness and strength of the submarine force."
USS Rhode Island's arrival in the Mediterranean Sea comes after Russian submarine Generalissimus Suvorov launched a Bulava ballistic missile from the White Sea as part of a training mission.
Ohio-class subs can patrol continuously as a highly-effective tool for the NATO nuclear deterrence force and could be headed to a strategic position near the Black Sea.