Singapore: Peter Lim, a sports-loving Singaporean billionaire, Tuesday announced an increased offer of £360 million (Dh2.1 billion) in cash for troubled English football club Liverpool.
"I respect and admire Liverpool Football Club, which is steeped in tradition and history," Lim said in a statement. "I am committed to rebuilding the club so that it can soon regain its position at the pinnacle of English and European football, where it truly belongs. This is why I have stepped forward with this offer." His offer is 20 per cent higher than a US rival's proposal of £300 million that was accepted by the club's management over a similar offer by Lim during an auction that ended last week.
Stiff opposition
The decision to sell the club to New England Sports Ventures, owners of the Boston Red Sox baseball team, is now being contested by Liverpool's current American owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett.
A hearing at the High Court in London, where the Royal Bank of Scotland is seeking to force through the sale of the club in the face of opposition from Hicks and Gillett, is set to decide the club's fate.
Lim's offer values the club at £320 million. A further £40 million will be made available to purchase new players.
The new offer is entirely in cash and will remove the entire acquisition debt of £200 million taken on by the existing owners that has cast uncertainty over the club's future, the statement said.
Lim is one of Singapore's wealthiest individuals with a personal fortune of $1.6 billion(Dh5.8 billion), according to US business magazine Forbes.
The son of a fishmonger, he made his fortune as a stockbroker and became a private investor in 1996. He keeps a relatively low profile and rarely gives media interviews.
His key holdings include stakes in Wilmar International, the world's largest palm oil firm, and regional education provider Informatics, which he turned around after the firm had fallen on hard times.
Earlier this month he invested about $100 million in Global Logistic Properties, a giant provider of warehouse facilities in China and Japan that is majority owned by Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC. People who know Lim said his interest in Liverpool stemmed from his love of soccer, and he recently donated S$10 million (Dh28 million) to the Singapore Olympics Foundation for scholarships for promising young athletes from poor families.
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