Watch Liverpool

• John W Henry behind one of two outline offers made to club
• Chinese group also interested but owners reject both

The owner of the Boston Red Sox Major League Baseball team, John W Henry, has posted an outline offer to buy Liverpool Football Club, according to sources close to the discussions. Liverpool’s chairman, Martin Broughton, presented Henry’s bid, along with one from Asian business interests, understood to be Chinese, at a board meeting today.

Both bids were described as “credible” by reliable sources today and Broughton, Liverpool’s managing director, Christian Purslow, and Ian Ayre, the club’s commercial director, were understood to favour entering serious discussions. However, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, the American owners of Liverpool, which owes £237m to Royal Bank of Scotland and Wachovia, were said to have rejected the offers in principle because they do not provide enough money for their shares.

One informed source described Henry as “extremely interested” in buying Liverpool, saying he has the means and expertise required, as evidenced by the Red Sox’s iconic stadium, Fenway Park. Liverpool supporters will be naturally suspicious of any bid coming from the US after the bitter experience with Hicks and Gillett and will want assurances that the finance is real, not borrowed. Hicks and Gillett engineered a “leveraged buy-out” of Liverpool in February 2007, with £185m entirely borrowed from RBS, then made the capital and interest the club’s responsibility to repay.

The outlines of the bids are understood to be broadly the ones which have been considered as the only credible solution for the club – repaying the banks but giving little profit to Hicks and Gillett. The banks, both of which collapsed in the economic crisis, – RBS is now 84% owned by the British taxpayer – want their loans back on 15 October but there is no apparent prospect of either of the owners being able to repay them. Despite that, Hicks and Gillett are known to have held out for a handsome profit on their shares. Neither could be reached for comment tonight.This is appropriate dummy text that is being employed in order to ascertain an approximate length because the actual copy has not yet been received. This is appropriate dummy text that is being employed in order to ascertain an approximate length because the actual copy has not yet been received. This is appropriate dummy text that is being employed in order to ascertain an approximate length because the actual copy has not yet been received. This is appropriate dummy text that is being employed in order to ascertain an approximate length because the copy has not yet been received. 100

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LiverpoolMLBBusinessDavid Connguardian.co.uk