Friedkin takeover is 'on track' say unnamed sources

It took two independent commissions weeks to understand Everton's financial balance sheets, debt structures and cost allocation. This might take a while.

Steve, just my (uneducated) opinion but it took two commissions weeks to to make a judgement.

That is because the rules weren't clear and were being made up as they went along. So declaring a punishment was a bit tricky until they decided what we did wrong.

I still struggle to understand that we broke rules when investing (very badly) in our own club and building a new stadium.

What a farce — why should it take weeks and months to decide if owners have the money (and quite often they don't when Man Utd owners… but that's another story)?

The rules for ownership have been a joke for years and suddenly the Premier League wish to apply some rigour around them??? Mental.

James, good point and I agree.

The Premier League's decision not to put a clear governance framework and transparent penalty framework in place is a disgrace.

As was their logic about what constituted co-operation and what didn't? As far as it existed at all, their criteria was that clubs would receive a lower points deduction for agreeing with the Premier League's opinion as soon as it was expressed and admitting they broke the rules — without quite knowing what the rules were. The independent football regulator will short them out.

On Everton's debt structure, I think that is a complex picture, but also solveable. Long-term debt restructuring by the new owners will lower the cost of our lending at the same time as our commercial revenue increases due to the new stadium.

I have to laugh when people think deals like this will take weeks. You're not buying a car — it's a multi-million-pound deal.

There's probably things financially at Everton we don't know about. I said at the beginning it would take till the middle of September to finish the deal. I still think the same.

Having been involved in "complex due diligence " when taking over a company, the devil is in the detail and not everything disclosed is black and white.

Given that, for many years, our major source of loans has been a company (R&MF) that provides funding from unknown sources at high interest rates, latterly 777 Partners and their access to A-CAP funding, one can expect a few spanners or not so obvious oneline clauses in any agreements.

Many loan sharks play for keeps, they have had a cash cow, they only want more. So back when finding money for more lawnmowers was a necessity, it's reasonable to expect that, once they have their teeth into you, there will be difficult exit clauses (payments) somewhere...

Paul, I quite agree. These guys are potentially investing between £500M and £1B.

It is expected Moshiri will lose several hundred million of his investment, so they are definitely going to want to do a detailed due diligence.

I have no doubts a deal will be concluded in time. The Friedkin Group have some of the best legals money can buy, compounded by the will to buy Everton and watch it grow.

Despite our previous financial woes, we are far too good an opportunity to miss. They see the long picture and that "Magnificent" new stadium, added to the future growth of the surrounding area.

They will make it work and we will get an early Christmas present; all is slowly coming into place. In the coming years, we will become the envy of many other clubs and fans.

The takeover process isn't strictly about agreeing if the proposed new owners are suitable. That's one small element of the whole picture.

It might be obvious if they are or not, but the real journey is in unpicking the finances and organisational structure and infrastructure. Loans, debtors, creditors, assets and legal agreements all have to be sifted through.

There have been many a takeover where they thought X number of people were on the books only to find pockets of undisclosed staff were hidden away. It's a complex process that seems simple from the outside.

It's probably pointing towards Moshiri being offered less money to settle the sale.

In the meantime, the squad strength is likely to be weaker unless there is some very smart selling and buying going to happen.

There must be one hell of a spreadsheet behind all this!

I struggle to understand what the Premier League intend from the outcome of a fit and proper owners test... it shouldn't take long to determine The Friedkin Group have huge resources and are protecting their investment through due diligence but I suppose the fact that there are others on the ticket does complicate things. Not sure why else the timescale would be any different to the most recent takeover.

One thing is clear though, it certainly hasn't felt like the Premier League have had our best interests at heart recently!

If it's done by October then we'll be happy.

As I have said, the dawn of our new era should be starting when we begin life at Bramley-Moore Dock, new owners should be seeing this club finally start shifting the balance into an upward trajectory.

If we fail to seize opportunities after that, then once again, much like the Moshiri 8 years of hell, it will be our own failures.

Ben (3), I don't think it's a farce.

No multi-million pound deal gets finalised within a couple of weeks, these things take months. I've been struggling for months to even understand the basics of our financial position and I know that the Friedkin Group will want to know every last detail of what they are buying into.

When I bought my house, it took months to sort out all the routine house contract stuff (god they take ages!) but this is somewhat bigger and so will take time.

On the flipside, being bought by a professional who has an eye for detail and knowing all the financial info is exactly what I want as the person running our club.

Alastair this article is referring to Friedkin undertaking due diligence, nothing to do with the Premier League. They need to make sure they fully understand what they are buying and the liabilities they are taking on.

From memory the Premier League checks took about 4 weeks to confirm Radcliffe at Man Utd.

Steve,

Interesting thought that the independent commission(s) will be getting involved in this review.

I don't think that's the case. Although there is now an additional step of scrutiny or review that the Premier League has implemented from last season. This kicks in once they make a decision on the approval.

There is now an Independent Oversight Panel that will review the Premier League Board's determination on the worthiness of The Friedkin Group, or more specifically their nominated directors.

"The independent football regulator will short them out."

Yeah, right. I won't be holding my breath.

I don't believe we need to look any further than what Raymond suggests in paragraph one, @post10.

There seems to be an assumption that the Premier League's fit and proper person test can only start once Friedkin's due diligence activity has been completed thus extending the length of the takeover exercise. Is there any reason why they shouldn't be run concurrently? After all, Friedkin's ownership of Roma is visible and ‘out there' and apparently above board. Surely it would be possible for the Premier League to give its approval conditional upon the due diligence being completed successfully.

The one bit I'm taking from this is "on track."

All the reast is waffle, supposition, and bullshit.

Don't start the panic just yet.

Rob 17

I am sure the EPL could do their investigation concurrently if they wished but why would they if it's not even certain the deal is agreed? We had Kenyon's group in a similar period of exclusivity a few years ago and that petered out to nothing. It wouldn't be a good use of resources (time and money) to investigate every potential investor in a club given that many such proposals never actually reach final agreement.

Unnamed sources.
Click bait.

Can we please just get this sorted?

Read my mind, Brian at 18.

"On track" is all we need to know. The rest is just padding with words for the paragraph.

Patience grasshoppers.

It will take eons to count the millions of lawnmowers black Bill bought and the complicated loans he set behind that..

As others have said there may be clauses (including penalty clauses) in those agreements so the due diligence has to be thorough.

We have a willing buyer and a willing seller so lets keep the faith for now.

In the meantime Dyche and Thelwell are wasting no time getting a workable squad together for next season.

An average house sale is 2-3 months before full completion. Imagine this will take a bit longer.

Ian, 2-3 months in the UK, my friend sold a property in Portugal, just before Brexit. It took all morning.
The seller, buyer, their solicitors and someone from the equivalent of Land Registry (I think) and it was sorted. Here, legal issues are drawn out by solicitors to justify their fees.

The takeover could have been finalised months ago, if Moshiri had listened to the shareholders and fans group, instead of the ridiculous exclusivity with 777 Trotters independent Traders.

Anyone getting impatient with this transaction is simply going to need to find more patience.

These things take time. I've been involved in a few of these over the years, and it can not be stressed enough on an absolutely microscopic level comparatively to what we're dealing with here. Sixty days is usually the norm for a tiny business to do due diligence.

In this instance we're talking about purchasing a Club that has been shooting loaned money around, that they honestly can't afford to pay back, all over the place. The accountants and analysts will be pouring over ever single detail - the expenses (there's probably thousands easily), how said expenses were booked, the debt ratio, etc. Then I'd about guarantee calls to creditors will be placed to see if debts can be restructured. This is going to take time.

I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if after Friedkin is done performing due diligence he lowers his offer. There's going to be some gamesmanship and poker playing here. Friedkin is holding ALL the cards. Moshri has to sell or file bankruptcy, and I'd highly, highly doubt he wants to do the latter. If creditors don't restructure I'd bet Friedkin comes back to Moshri and lowers his offer.

Who knows I suppose. The one thing I would bet the house on is we're looking at 90 to 120 days in total from exclusivity until a deal is consummated. Minimum!

The above is all conjecture based upon (stupidly small deal) experience. Experience that can't even hold a candle to what this deal entails and the complexity of it. If it takes 60 days to crawl into numbers for a tiny, small business deal, this Everton situation will surely take a lot, lot longer than the Mickey Mouse shit I've been involved with.

And it's not fun, either. There's so many things you have to investigate, get answers to, pull out expenses you think you can trim to obtain some viability ratio / analysis. It's just nuts. I'd liken it to applying for a mortgage to buy a house 100 times over - the litany of paperwork, emails, phone calls, etc. is just suffocating.

Grab your patience pills and just swallow the entire bottle, you're gonna need it.

At this early stage I think no news is good news. I imagine we will be well into the autumn before we hear any substantive announcements.

Friedkin is the man for now and when that 'now' starts is 3, 4, 6 months(?) in the future.

BMD's 'now' is getting the final touches and starts next season.

Dyche is the man for now and his 'now' is on going. There will be a maybe unofficial assessment around October/November. But unless we're this season's Sultans of Swing and in Sheffield United style dire straits, his 'now' goes until the end of the season.

John #40,

I think you are on the right track.

At Roma, the Friedkin Group are very low Profile.

Friedkin completed the deal to purchase Roma in just 12 days from agreement to closure.

However, he'd been negotiating for eight months and knew every detail by the time he and the previous owner agreed on price.

Obviously this is a much more complicated situation -- Roma was in some trouble but had nowhere near the complex debt issues that burden Everton.

And assuming Friedkin wasn't even in contact with Moshiri until the 777 exclusivity expired, they've only been talking for a couple of months at most.

So it'll take a little time to "just get this sorted", Danny #21.

But I feel confident it will. Friedkin isn't dumb, and he's certainly not going to inject £200m into the club unless he's pretty damn sure he's gonna own it, and sooner rather than later.

Ray #32, my experience in Thailand as well, seller and buyer go down to the land office, sign the papers and wait for the name to be changed on the deeds and the cheque is handed over.

Anyone seen this link?

Joint Statement — Blue Heaven Holdings and The Friedkin Group

The whole Friedkin deal is off! They've pulled out completely.

I saw that, James, but haven't seen it anywhere reliable.

Oh well.

On the official site — the takeover deal is off.

@Andrew,

Haha! The Official Everton site is nothing if not (un)reliable!

It is on the main site, Andrew.

For fuck's sake, this is so bad!

Andrew (47) — it is on the club site.

Kenwright and Moshiri have a lot to answer for

Or not.

Unnamed source may have been "on the sauce". To be on track — and then not — so quickly!!!!

What did their due diligence find? Obvious really, there is a big mess that will not be fixed easily and without large amounts of money.

777 found some money?

Fuck.

Just Fuck.

Friedkin have walked away and takeover is off.

So much for ‘being on track'!

Statement from Friedkin issued on BBC:

Everton have released a joint-statement, external from Blue Heaven Holdings and The Friedkin Group.

"Following a period of exclusivity, discussions between Blue Heaven Holdings and The Friedkin Group over a potential sale of a majority stake in Everton have ended and The Friedkin Group will not be progressing with a purchase of the club.

"Both Blue Heaven Holdings and The Friedkin Group entered discussions in good faith to explore whether a sale could be agreed. Those discussions have concluded. The parties agree it is in both their interests for Everton to explore alternative options.

"The Friedkin Group will remain a lender to the club and is proud to have played a key role in enabling the new stadium to be built, which will help ensure a bright future for both Everton and the City of Liverpool.

"Blue Heaven Holdings maintains a positive relationship with The Friedkin Group and would like to thank them for the time and effort they have put into this process.

"When there is further news to share, it will be provided via the club's official communication channels."

Oh shit.

The sale has fallen through.

The jig is up.

Any early news on this was bound to be bad news, wasn't it?!

Twitter inundated with (overseas) Man Utd "fans" laughing and saying they'll get Branthwaite for tuppence. What a bunch of snide cunts.

If the club as any pride, it will refuse to sell the lad to them, even if we got a couple of million less.

Of course, won't happen, because Moshiri. He is the devil.

The Freidkin Group have pulled out.

Moshiri's Everton shares are back on the market.

The article in the i didn't age well!

I don't think a prospective owner would make this decision based on bargaining. This sounds very final.

There were allegedly many prospective buyers, let's see if that's true.

Friedkin has pulled out.

Pity the fathers of Kenwright and Moshiri didn't do the same.

Sky Sports are reporting that Friedkin have walked away.

Who were these 'sources"?

The Chuckle Brothers?

If Everton FC is on the brink of administration, then Moshiri's investment is almost worthless.

Friedkin knows that and Moshiri will not face the truth. Or, as some suggest, he has a Russian gun pointed at his head.