777 Partners in talks with lenders to complete £500m Everton takeover, Bramley-Moore Dock safe
US investment firm 777 Partners are in talks with a number of lenders in order to use loans to fund their takeover at Everton, according to the Mail on Sunday.
The newspaper reported on 29 October (page 90) that 777 insists the loans will not be made against any of Everton’s assets – including the new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock – to avoid adding more debt to the cash-strapped Premier League club.
It is understood that they will instead take out loans against their non-football businesses.
The Mail on Sunday claims that one of the lenders 777 have spoken to is A-Cap as they seek help to fund a £500million takeover of the Toffees.
Not good
It was always speculated that 777 won’t have enough money to buy Everton.
While they are going to ensure that these loans don’t add any extra financial burden to the Toffees, it does create possible problems for themselves in the future because these loans will need to be paid back at some point.
Due to 777 using their own businesses, they could get around paying large interest fees but still, the fact they are trying to complete a takeover by using loans doesn’t look good.
It shows that they don’t have the money needed to stump up what Farhad Moshiri wants for his majority shareholding at Goodison Park, which could come as another strike against them in the Premier League’s fit and proper person test.
There’s just too much about the takeover that we don’t like the look of and it’s something that all Evertonians need to be wary of too instead of just being happy about the news that Moshiri is on his way out.
This is probably a case of the better the devil you know than the one you don’t.
Moshiri’s main crimes were dealing with a Russian oligarch – with the good of the club’s future in mind – and trusting the wrong people to spend his money at Everton.
In other Everton news, Graeme Souness blasts Everton as “basket case” after recent developments.