Dubai businessmen who failed with a 2007 deal to purchase Liverpool for £4.3bn are said to be planning a takeover of the club.
After Fenway Sports Group (FSG) put Liverpool up for sale, interested parties are beginning to gather, with Dubai International Capital among the potential buyers.
Middle Eastern rumors indicate that Dubai investors are considering acquiring Liverpool for $5billion (£4.3bn) after Fenway Sports Group (FSG) placed the club up for sale.
After 12 years of ownership, FSG is eager to sell the Reds and said in a statement on Monday that it "would consider new shareholders if it was in the best interests of Liverpool as a club." As proposals are being solicited, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are aiding with the process.
Forbes assessed Liverpool at around £3.5 billion in May of this year, roughly 12 times the price FSG paid for the club in 2010. The American sports investment firm has set a £4billion asking price to sell the club, meaning only a very wealthy individual, group, or government can acquire the Reds.
Due to the richness of the Gulf states, the possibility of Middle Eastern investors purchasing the Anfield club looks to be one of the more plausible possibilities. Arabian Business claimed on Tuesday that Dubai International Capital (DIC) 'may be considering' the purchase of Liverpool.
It would not be the first time DIC has sought to acquire Merseyside, as its $360 million (£312 million) bid in 2007 failed. In an interview with Arabian Business in 2014, Sameer Al Ansari, the founding head of Dubai's sovereign wealth fund, discussed the offer and said that the delay was due to his being a Liverpool supporter.
Al Ansari stated, "We would have been the first to execute [a coup] outside of this region." "As soon as they [Liverpool] won the Champions League in 2005, we did due diligence seriously in 2006 and were close to signing in January 2007.
Everyone, including His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, was aware that Sameer was a devoted Liverpool supporter. Therefore, we conducted three times as much due diligence, as I had to justify the commercial logic and, honestly, there were very few clubs where one could do it.
Instead, Liverpool was acquired by Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr., who amassed enormous debts before to FSG's 2010 takeover. After FSG's decision to sell the club, DIC has an opportunity to do better than it did 15 years ago, and it might become one of several Middle Eastern owners in European football.
Newcastle was acquired by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia last year, and Manchester City has been controlled by the City Football Group of Abu Dhabi since 2008. In 2011, Qatar Sports Investments acquired the French powerhouse Paris Saint-Germain.