Liverpool's Anfield Stadium. (Photo : Getty Images)
Chinese state-backed firm SinoFortone is aggressively pursuing a purchase of English Premier League club Liverpool FC for £700 million, recent reports said.
The Independent reported that the Chinese group is eyeing an "impending £700m takeover" of Liverpool football club, currently owned by American corporation Fenway Sports Group that also owns Major League Baseball's Boston Red Sox.
SinoFortone is rumored to be initiating the transaction since March of this year.
The report further mentioned that principal owner John W. Henry is "reluctant to sell the club" that he bought from Hicks and Gillett for £300 million in October 2010 as the team had already invested so much, especially in signing big-name players since their acquisition almost six years ago.
Additionally, the current owners have already cleared all of the club's debts and other obligations as they have also started investing in renovating the Anfield, the Red's official home stadium.
Meanwhile, the Chinese company had already initiated £5.2 billion worth of UK-based projects in the past year allegedly to soften the deal.
SinoFortone is said to be a leading project management firm of large-scale constructions in China and the Middle East and have "invested £2 billion in eco-parks in north and west Wales following the Chinese president Xi Jinping's visit to Britain last year".
If the Chinese investors will become its new owners, they are said to be planning on building a new home stadium for the Reds "near the dockland area of Liverpool" and will also renovate the team's training facility in Melwood.
Metro indicated that SinoFortone is also amenable to a part-ownership deal with Fenway still holding the majority stake, but with a "medium to long-term exit strategy".
This gradual takeover is said to be more appealing to Henry and Liverpool Chairman Tom Werner as both senior executives are turning 67 on their coming birthdays and may retire a few years from now.
Liverpool finished at the eighth spot of the Premier League table in the recently concluded season, missing the Champions League and Europa League competitions in their first season with new head coach Jürgen Klopp.
Klopp joined the squad in October of last year replacing Brendan Rodgers and so far had a mercurial time trying to form a new identity for the Reds.
Analysts think that the future is bright for the club with Klopp at the helm and that might be one of the factors that it is attracting the interest of investors worldwide.
