Texan Tom Hicks made a fortune in leveraged buyouts, won hockey’s Stanley Cup, agreed to give a baseball player the largest contract in sports history, and owns half of one of the world’s most famous soccer teams.
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Still, when it comes to impressive resumes, he bows to a founding director of his newest venture, Hicks Acquisition Company I, which completed its initial public offering this week.
Brian Mulroney is a former Prime Minister of Canada and in June became a director of the Blackstone Group, the giant New York-based private equity firm that sold part of itself to the public this year. Mulroney is also a director of Archer Daniels Midland and Wyndham Worldwide, and has been a senior adviser to HM Capital, a successor to Hicks Muse Tate & Furst.
Hicks Acquisition Company I is a so-called “blank-check” buyout firm that aims to acquire other companies. The offering raised $552 million, making it the largest IPO of its kind to date, the company said in a release.
In its prospectus, Hicks Acquisition says target companies will find that being acquired by a blank-check firm is a more cost effective way to become a public company. The credit crunch also could be a factor. Hick’s firm now has cash in the bank and can issue more stock, and/or debt, to complete deals. No acquisition targets have yet been identified.
Other founding directors of the firm include William Cunningham, the former president of the University of Texas at Austin and former chancellor of the UT system, William Montgomery, a private investor, and William Quinn, the CEO of American Beacon Advisors, an affiliate of American Airlines.
Officers of the firm include Hicks’ sons, Tom Jr. and Mack, and several other executives already overseeing the family’s sports, real estate and private equity investments. Hicks and his sons are University of Texas graduates. Robert Swartz, a former executive with Centex, the homebuilder, is also an officer of Hicks Acquisition.
The founders of Hicks Acquisition paid $25,000 for 13.8 million shares of stock, according to the prospectus. That’s less than two-tenths of a cent per share. Public shareholders paid $10 apiece for 55.2 million shares sold during the IPO. They are betting on Hicks’ expertise and track record.
Hicks owns the Dallas Stars of the National Hockey League and Major League Baseball’s Texas Rangers. In 2000, Hicks agreed to pay Alex Rodriguez $252 million over 10 years to play shortstop for the Rangers. A-Rod now plays third base for the New York Yankees.
Earlier this year, Hicks bought 50 percent of the Liverpool soccer club in the English Premier League.
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2 Comments
#1. real red 01.17.2008
Hicks promised his deal to get new finance to support his purchase of Liverpool Football Club would take 30 days to tie up. That was back in October. He’s still not achieved it, the banks won’t allow him to. They don’t believe he’s got the clout to take on a loan at the level he’s asking for, and he’s unwilling or unable to put down a personal deposit on that loan. He wants to put the debt wholly on Liverpool Football Club, against his promises when taking over the club.
And he’s backing Guiliani in the elections too. I’ll confess to not knowing a great deal about US politics, but does Rudy realise what kind of person he’s being associated with?
Tom Hicks made a join takeover of English “Soccer” team, Liverpool Football Club, just under a year ago.
He did this with loads of razzmatazz, promising not to put any debt whatsoever onto the club’s assets. He took out a loan, alongside his now co-owner, that was secured on their own assets. It was a crucial part of the acceptance of the deal by shareholders.
He also promised to uphold the traditions of the club, to give big money for new players (it costs big money for new players in Europe, at least $50m for a top-class striker and Liverpool needed at least two) and to give us a new stadium that would make the rest of the football world look on with envy.
He even showed us plans for the new stadium. Then changed his mind.
He claimed the credit crunch wasn’t hurting his finances, then admitted on Monday that it was.
In fact he’s said a lot of things, especially in the last three months, that have turned out to be lies.
He accused the press of making up stories that he was going to fire the coach - but admitted on Monday that not only had he planned to fire him, he’d even interviewed and offered the job to a potential successor. One who happens to have never coached a club before, and has no links whatsoever to this club!
Hicks is someone that is clearly not to be trusted. He tells lies, he spins the truth to deflect people from what he doesn’t want them to know.
And he’s part of Rudy’s campaign!
If Hicks was backing a candidate aiming to lead my country, I’d not go anywhere near him. At all.
Why? Because you have to be able to trust your leader, to trust their judgement. Rudy trusts Hicks! I’d vote for someone else.
Hicks has shown himself to be a bully this past few months, and has managed to turn a worldwide fanbase of literally millions against himself with his recent actions. Fans may be saying “Go home Yanks” or “Americans out” but it’s not an attack on the US, it’s an attack on Hicks and his bullied sidekick Gillett.
We don’t want liars running our club. We want people we can trust.
Do the people of America want liars running their country? Just be wary of anyone associated to Tom Hicks.
#2. Big payday for Brian Mulroney on Blackstone-Tom Hicks deal? | Muckety.com - See the news 07.01.2008
[…] closing also starts the clock on a potential big payday for Mulroney and other founding directors of Hicks […]
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