Spirit of Shankly have submitted questions to the club about the Rhone Group, here is the release from SOS in full:
The Spirit of Shankly are aware of credible reports that Liverpool Football Club may be subject to significant investment from the Rhone Group – an organisation described variously as an “investment vehicle” or “hedge fund”.
The suggested investment relates to the £100m investment that Christian Purslow has indicated was required by the Club’s current bankers Royal Bank of Scotland.
Although reports suggest that the investment is one of “equity” not “debt” the Spirit of Shankly are calling upon Christian Purslow to fully explain the details of any proposed investment before it is completed. We are particularly interested in answers to the following questions:
1 . Who exactly are these investors? What are their intentions, both in terms of further investment towards the stadium and team?
2. Any investor will seek a return – what return is being sought by Rhone in relation to its investment? Is it an annual payment based upon the amount of their investment and therefore just a replacement of expensive debt for more expensive debt even if described as “equity not debt”?
3. What are the practical implications of this potential investment for day to day management of the Club going forward? Who would be in control?
4. Other than the pressure the Club is under from RBS why would acceptance of this type of “investment” be better for LFC than remaining with RBS?
5. Can you confirm whether either Tom Hicks, George Gillett, any of their family or yourself have any connection with Rhone, its current or previous owners and managers, and if so what those connections are?
We have been here before. February 2007 and we had promises of no debt, and investment being good for the club. Look how that turned out! Once bitten, twice shy.
Two is bad, three is worse.
If they care more about the club than the bottom line, I will be happy.
they are just an investment company. Wouldn’t comment about their intentions just as yet..
It is a known fact among notable private equity individuals (people in the know) that the fact is, ‘Rhone Group LLC’ is one of the worlds leading mid market private equity firms. They own many major companies around the world….maybe you’ve heard of Quicksilver perhaps..? I would strongly recommend supporting these guys sooner then later. You see, we ought to be honored and graciously accept and support Rhone coming in to help us like this. Liverpool FC needs exactly this! Don’t you see, support from a firm (Rhone) that has a tremendous amount of power and influence both financially and politically is quite literally priceless! Honestly we should consider ourselves lucky to get them, especially in these harsh economic times when everyone’s strapped for cash. These Rhone guys are billionaires and not only that, they’re powerful people with serious connections, just think of how far they could take a club like Liverpool! I whole heartedly accept the potential new owners of Liverpool FC…Welcome Agostinelli and Langman! The truth is we should consider ourselves seriously lucky to be getting support at such a high level. We’ve currently got these 2 twats H&G who simply cant hack it any longer! If majority stake is turned over to Rhone we can be sure to see much brighter days ahead. Its time for a new regime! I say bring in the Rhone team asap! And whats all this rubbish chatter about more “yanks” buying LFC..?? “Agostinelli” is an Italian name – “Rhone” is a Swiss/ French name, and Mr. Agostinelli is Italian and lives between Paris and London + if im not mistaken his wife is French! (How much more international can you get!?) BTW Agostinelli is friends with Bush and Sarkozy, cant say I love bush but that doesn’t change the fact that we’re dealing with seriously high profiled people here not to mention a set of ‘deep pockets’. What this basically means (if it goes through) is that Liverpool will be at the helm of ‘true power’ and this is what we need to take us further and ultimately to victories. Fingers crossed! CHEERS!