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Player Valuation: £35m
Farhad Moshiri agrees surprise extension with 777 over Everton takeover until end of month
Exclusive: Moshiri has given Miami-based investors last chance to rescue a deal that remains in major doubt
14 May 2024 • 3:48pm
Everton owner Farhad Moshiri has unexpectedly agreed to extend his sale and purchase agreement with crisis-engulfed 777 Partners.
The deal remains a major doubt, but 777, which is still supporting the club with operational funding, has been granted extra time to somehow address the turmoil it faces elsewhere.
Terms on an initial deal agreed by club owner Moshiri last September were due to expire last week but an extension has been granted until the end of the month after days of face-to-face talks. Moshiri has in effect given 777 a last chance to prove it can rescue the deal as the investment firm wrestles with accusations of fraud and the unravelling of the reinsurance financing that underpinned many of its acquisitions.
The club, meanwhile, is expected to address fans over the situation this week as various financing options are weighed up. Executives have maintained privately for weeks that the club will avoid administration despite financial uncertainty surrounding the club.
The refusal by 777 to give up on plans to buy Everton comes after the group called in turnaround and crisis management experts as lawsuits and financial claims pile up.
A team from B Riley Advisory Services is assisting with “various operational challenges”, according to a 777 memo seen by the Financial Times and corroborated by Telegraph Sport. “We have retained a team of professionals from B Riley Advisory Services (a division of B Riley Financial) to assist with managing through various operational challenges,” the memo said.
On Tuesday, Richard Masters, the Premier League chief executive, acknowledged that takeovers that drag on like that of Everton by 777 Partners “are not good”.
Masters indicated the US investment firm had still not met conditions imposed on the deal by the world’s richest league, which include it immediately settling some of the club’s debts that run into hundreds of millions of pounds.
Grilled by Damian Collins MP, the former chair of the Culture, Media and Sport select committee, about why the Premier League had not simply rejected the takeover and whether an independent regulator would have done so, Masters admitted there were “benefits” to a “regulatory ownership test” that included “access to more information”.
“We’re not a statutory body,” he added. “So, we can only get the information we’re provided with, and we have strong investigatory powers.
“I do accept that takeovers that carry on for a very long time are not good, for fan certainty. And that’s why we have a very big team of people who do nothing else than this.
“All I would say is that, over time, particularly in the Premier League, takeovers are becoming increasingly complex, and it is not a small undertaking on the part of the regulator to take this particular burden on. That’s why we want to remain involved with it as well. This is very complicated and we need to make sure that all those decisions are correct, even if that means taking a little bit more time.”
The US firm is facing mounting lawsuits and claims of unpaid bills in different territories, including over its ownership of Belgian club Standard Liege, resulting in co-founder Josh Wander coming under pressure to quit the board of the European Club Association.
It also emerged last week that 777 had hired restructuring experts to overcome “various operational challenges”.
Two millionaire Evertonian businessmen and US firm MSP Sports Capital could be targeted as potential buyers were Moshiri to axe his deal with 777.
Dealmakers believe Liverpudlian investors Andy Bell and George Downing, who already have money tied up in the club, would be seriously interested in at least part-ownership.
Called it.
