A fortnight on from Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group opening themselves up to expressions of interest in the club, Paris Saint-Germain are following a similar path.
FSG engaged the services of US banking giants Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs last year to begin the search for outside investment into the Reds, with that search now expanded to allow for interest in a full takeover of the club that FSG have owned since 2010.
But the Reds, while opening the door to a potential sale, remain on the lookout for minority stakeholders and sources well placed in the US told the ECHO that it was a case of FSG "testing the waters" to find out where Liverpool sat in the marketplace, something that Liverpool chairman Tom Werner backed up when he told the Boston Globe last week that it was "business as usual" and that they were "exploring a sale" with little urgency behind that process.
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Across the Channel another club is now on the lookout for fresh investment with French newspaper L'Equipe reporting that Qatar Sports Investments (QSI), the owners of big spending Paris Saint-Germain, are on the lookout for minority investors, stopping short of a full sale of the club helmed by Nasser Al-Khelaifi.
The report claimed that QSI are looking at potentially selling as much as 15 per cent of the club to an unnamed American investment fund, a move that would bring fresh capital into a club that have come under UEFA scrutiny in recent years for their wild spending that has seen them stack out their team with the likes of Neymar Jnr, Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi, among others.
PSG will want to bring on board fresh funds for further spend, and in selling a part of the club to a third party they would be able to achieve that aim.
L'Equipe also reported that Al-Khelaifi had indicated that a bid of €4bn (£3.48bn) had already come in for the club, a figure that, if correct, would give some indication as to where FSG see the value of Liverpool in the marketplace, with the ECHO understanding that a figure of $4bn (£3.4bn) had been viewed as the kind of sum that would see a conversation initiated between any interested parties, provided that they were found to be agreeable to FSG.
PSG are a club valued at €3.2bn by Forbes magazine, while Liverpool are pegged at $4.45bn. While PSG have been successful in turning themselves into something of a lifestyle brand, even going as far as having a flagship store on New York's Fifth Avenue, Liverpool remain a club of enormous global pull with a fan base that touches all corners of the globe and domestic and European success that has solidified that position of power.
FSG, while open to a sale, are understood to be keen on finding appropriate bedfellows to provide a capital injection through an equity sale, with one potential outcome being a sale over time, where a part acquires a smaller stake and increases it on a piecemeal basis before acquiring full ownership. That may allow FSG to continue to see some of the benefit of what is expected to be the continued rise in valuations of sports teams while at the same time addressing a desire for fresh capital into the business.
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