Source: Daily_Mail
Anfield owners Hicks and Gillett close to refinance agreement on £350m loan
Liverpool co-owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett are set to successfully refinance their £350million loan in a bid to boost funds at Anfield.
The American pair want to restructure their deal with the Royal Bank of Scotland and Wachovia from next month's deadline.
Any extension could cost the duo an arrangement fee of up to £3.5m. Interest payments, which are estimated to be 4 per cent above the banking rate, should be similar to their current terms.
Hicks' and Gillett's parent company Kop Football (Holdings) Limited last week announced a £42.6m loss for the year ending July 2008 despite a record turnover of £164.2m.
Spirit of Shankly, a Liverpool supporters group, have started a campaign to push RBS to refuse to extend the loan beyond the deadline of July 24 but the banks are expected to give the deal the green light.
How much have I got?: Rafa Benitez is eyeing more signings this summer
That should offer further funds to the manager Rafa Benitez, who feared he would be unable to compete with their Barclays Premier League rivals in the transfer market this summer.
'Banks won't want to jeopardise growth through taking control,' a source involved in the deal told The Guardian.
The move should hand Hicks and Gillett extra time to avoid having to sell the club, although their hopes of borrowing £400m to build a new stadium are in serious doubt.
But Ben?z has confirmed that he will be able to spend this summer. 'I won't talk about any figures and I can't say how much we have,' he said.
'Clearly we don't have too much to spend but I think we have enough money to add the one or two players that we need.'
