By Lori Ewing
MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) – Everton have agreed a long-term financing deal for the Premier League club’s new stadium on Liverpool’s waterfront, securing a long-term, 350 million pounds ($450.49 million) funding deal to refinance the borrowing already in place on the venue.
Everton’s new owners The Friedkin Group said the funding was agreed with a “consortium of blue-chip institutional lenders” and will see the refinancing of debt that supported the completion of the 52,888-capacity Everton Stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock.
Everton said the offering was oversubscribed multiple times, ensuring competitive terms beneficial to the club.
The Texas-based Friedkin Group announced in September that they had reached an agreement to buy Everton, with the 98.8% takeover completed with Farhad Moshiri’s Blue Heaven Holdings selling its majority stake in December.
The Friedkin Group also owns Serie A club AS Roma.
The new stadium hosted the first of three test events on February 17 with an Under-18s match between Everton and Wigan Athletic in front of 10,000 fans. The Toffees will host their first competitive Premier League game at the venue in August.
($1 = 0.7769 pounds)
(Reporting by Lori Ewing; Editing by Ken Ferris)
