Dubai International Capital (DIC) has withdrawn from its planned bid to buy English football giants Liverpool until its current US owners reach agreement, according to CEO Sameer Al Ansari.
Al Ansari admitted he would still “love to own” Liverpool and will “continue to be interested” – but that for now, a takeover is not on the cards.
His comments come in an exclusive interview with Arabian Business magazine, to be published this Sunday.
In the interview, Al Ansari denies further pursuing the Liverpool buyout deal, as the conflict between the club owners resulted in a “very difficult and complicated situation”.
“You have two partners who do not see eye to eye. And we decided that we pull out completely. Let them sort out their problems,” Al Ansari tells the magazine.
DIC was prepared to pay almost $790 million for the club, which was bought by its current owners, George Gillett Jr and Tom Hicks, for about $348.7 million in February 2007. The pair also took on about $88 million debt.
The deal did not go through after the two partners disagreed; Hicks refusing to sell his 50% stake or even a minority stake, and Gillett being pro the deal.
“We will continue to be interested and would love to own the club but we are not going to put ourselves in a difficult situation where we make the investment but we have no control over the destiny of the club and we cannot influence the success of the club,” Al Ansari adds, insisting the deal can only happen for the “right reasons”.
“Unfortunately, the terms that have been put on the table do not allow us to do that,” he says.
In the same interview, Al Ansari also denies any talks with the Virgin Group about investment backing after the latter was hit hard as a result of the ailing US economy.
“We are not in discussions with Virgin so whatever is in the press is just speculation,” he says.
Earlier press reports claimed that finance could come from DIC’s purchase of a stake in Virgin Active, which runs health clubs, or a mobile phone joint venture in the Middle East.
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