India's Ambani Group denies bid for Liverpool
India's wealthiest man Mukesh Ambani denied Tuesday a British
newspaper report that he was in a race to take over Liverpool football
club.
But another Indian businessman reportedly in the running for the
Merseyside club appeared more circumspect.
The Times of London reported that Ambani, the world's seventh-richest
man, was one of two tycoons from the subcontinent competing to purchase
a stake in Liverpool.
The paper said Ambani's Reliance Industries and Sahara Group chairman
Subrata Roy had each tendered similar bids to pay off Liverpool's 237
million pound (370 million dollar) debts in return for a 51 percent
stake in the club.
"There is no truth to the report. We deny it completely," Reliance
spokeswoman Sudeep Purkayastha told AFP.
Ambani is worth 19.5 billion dollars from his investment in Reliance
Industries, a petrochemicals giant, according to Forbes business
magazine.
In 2008, Ambani created the Mumbai Indians, one of the eight teams in
cricket's Indian Premier League (IPL).
The newspaper said Roy's interest in Liverpool appeared "more
serious". His Sahara conglomerate said it could neither confirm nor deny
that a bid was in the offing.
"We are presently not in a position to comment," Sahara spokesman
Abhijit Sarkar told AFP.
Sahara has been linked with ownership of one of the next IPL
franchises, possibly to be based in the northern Indian city of Lucknow,
where the group is headquartered.
Sahara was linked with shirt sponsorship of Manchester United last
February, but the deal fell through.
The Times said Liverpool Chief Executive Christian Purslow had denied
knowledge of either bid, but reported that approaches began as early as
November and that some preliminary talks had taken place.
Pressure has been mounting on Liverpool's feuding owners, US
businessmen Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr, to cut a deal to sell the
Anfield club.
The Times quoted an unnamed source as saying that Liverpool's banker,
the state-backed Royal Bank of Scotland, is stipulating that the pair
must pay off 100 million pounds of debt and inject tens of millions of
pounds into the club.
The paper identified a number of other potential bidders, including a
Saudi Arabian consortium and a US-based buyer, who is prepared to pay
the 100 million pounds in exchange for 40 percent of the club.
But it quoted a source close to Hicks and Gillett as saying the duo
would reject any bid that left them with less than 50 percent of the
club's shares, unless it involved either of them selling out entirely.
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