Everton stadium update emerges from Laing O’Rourke amid 777 Partners cash chaos
Everton stadium builders Laing O’Rourke have confirmed to The Times that they have received their latest payment for the project.
Paul Joyce reported via the paper’s website on 30 April that the company say they have 1000 people on site working on the dock-side development, which is said to be on schedule and due to be handed over to the club in December.
The update comes after 777 Partners delivered £16million in working capital funding to the club late, sparking fears that bills would go unpaid, and with insolvency advisers Teneo called in at Everton amid mounting debts associated with the stadium construction.
Additionally, the same company’s PR arm has cut ties with the prospective new Toffees owners over unpaid bills, with the takeover facing renewed doubts and “the impression of 777 Partners scrambling around for money a constant theme”.
Everton stadium on track but takeover anything but
It is positive news that the vital work at the new stadium remains on track but reliance on 777 to provide the cash to pay for it is looking increasingly unsustainable.
The Miami-based company can point to over £200m in support provided to Everton over the course of this season, but the fact that figure is still a loan and not equity tells its own story.
The Premier League has indicated that converting the money into equity is one of their primary conditions for granted approval for the takeover bid, but with 777’s current plan to complete their buy-out of Farhad Moshiri by the end of May it will have taken eight and a half months to do so, and that is if the date isn’t pushed back further.
Repayment of MSP Sports Capital’s loans is another condition from the league and a 15 April deadline was supposed to finally provide answers as to whether the deal would get done or not, but Moshiri negotiated them an extension and the wait goes on.
With funding options decreasing as business issues and legal disputes mount for 777 it seems illogical that they would be becoming more likely to finally gather the required funding to takeover.
So the focus is understandably turning to the alternative buyers who are said to be waiting in the wings.
However, just as it was long unclear whether the ongoing delay to the current bid was the fault of 777 or the Premier League, it isn’t obvious whether the fact that a new offer hasn’t been sourced is down to Moshiri or the anonymous third parties.
But with the currently arrangement seemingly only getting more precarious it surely can’t continue for much longer.
In other Everton news, the club have jumped the queue to offer a deal to a sought-after exit-bound player.
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