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John Arne Riise looks on as Dirk Kuyt raises a jersey with his name and number (18) written in Cantonese during a visit to Hong Kong in 2007. Vincent Yu/AP via PA
Liverpool FC

Chinese government funding Liverpool takeover bid

Ni hao! China’s national investment agency is funding a Hong Kong syndicate’s bid to buy the club.

CHINA INVESTMENT CORPORATION (CIC) – the Chinese government’s foreign investment fund – is widely reported this morning as being behind the bid of Hong Kong investor Kenny Huang to buy Liverpool football club.

The Guardian reports that CIC has sold $558m of its shares in banking giant Morgan Stanley in the last two weeks – raising exactly the amount needed to cover Liverpool’s debt of £351.4m (€424m), and exactly the amount at which the club is valued by Huang’s consortium.

The fact that the government has been moving to liquidate its assets means that it is almost certain to make a move to take over the Anfield club.

It is also suggested that with the Chinese government funding the takeover and clearing the club’s debt, that Huang would be able to offer club boss Roy Hodgson a transfer kitty of about £150m (€181m).

CIC would be expected to take a back-seat role in the club’s affairs, with its website stating:

CIC usually does not seek an active role in the companies in which it invests nor attempts to influence those companies’ operations.

CIC seeks long-term, stable, sustainable, and risk-adjusted return.

The move comes as a bid led by former Saudi international Yahya Kirdi is widely suggested to be an artificially-created bid intended to inflate the asking price of the club in the absence of any other significant bidders.

Kirdi is known to be a close friend of the son of George Gillett, one of Liverpool’s current co-owners along with fellow American Tom Hicks.

The proposed involvement of the Chinese government in the club’s ownership, however, raises the awkward proposition of having the Premier League scrutinising the government as part of its Owners and Directors Test.