Watch Liverpool

• Rhone Group bid for 40% stake at Anfield
• Under-pressure owners may be forced to accept

Liverpool are in talks with private equity firm the Rhone Group over a £118.5m deal to buy a controlling share of the club and halve its debts.

It is understood the investment group wants a 40% stake at Anfield which would considerably strengthen the club’s financial position.

The Rhone Group’s bid would give them the controlling interest, with co-owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett reducing their shareholding to 30% each.

Hicks and Gillett, were last year told to cut £100m from the club’s £237m debts. The Royal Bank of Scotland gave the club a deadline of this summer to pay up.

The club’s chief executive, Christian Purslow, has been working to find investors and says he wants a deal by Easter.

The offer from the Rhone Group – which is the first real result of Purslow’s wide-ranging search – would be used to slash the club’s debt by half. That would make Liverpool a more attractive option for further outside investment.

It would also improve the club’s credit-worthiness, which could lead to work finally beginning on the long-awaited new stadium in Stanley Park.

Details of the offer were received by Liverpool yesterday and the matter has yet to be discussed by the board.

There have been suggestions that the American co-owners are looking for a better price, but with the clock ticking it may yet prove viable.

The Rhone Group was founded in 1995, has its headquarters in New York with other offices in London and Paris and describes itself as “one of the world’s leading mid-market private equity firms”.

LiverpoolBusinessguardian.co.uk