George Gillett is an American businessman who made his fortune across a wide set of interests ranging from telecommunications and ski resorts to junk bonds and the meat industry. His personal fortune is said to be worth at least £500m, although that may be augmented by his proposed sale of the Montreal Canadiens Ice Hockey team for a reported £330m. He began his business life with modest success, buying Harlem Globetrotters and a stake in the Miami Dolphins before selling both on, and reinvesting the profits in a number of radio stations and a major meat packing company in the 60’s and 70’s .
He built up a vast business empire in the 80’s after purchasing a number of small TV stations and newspapers. However he was more famous for his purchase of Colorado ski resorts and his prominent presence there, often meeting and greeting guests as they arrived. In the early 90’s Gillett was forced to file for bankruptcy after the rise in interest rates saw him unable to repay the junk bonds he had used to secure many of his purchases. Embarrassingly, he was forced to sell his property and classic car collection under the agreement. As Gillett himself admits:
” I had 10 days to get out of my house. I had to buy back my clothes and my dogs.”
After floating an unaffected company on the New York stock exchange in 1992 Gillett walked away with $32m, more than enough to rebuild his empire – which he set about doing almost immediately. He bought back the meat packing firm which he had lost and began expanding that operation buying up more meat packing companies, moving beyond beef into the poultry market. At the same time he also expanded his ski resort investments and again garnered acclaim for his enthusiasm and acumen in the market. By the turn of the century he had re-amassed his fortune and was ready to return to the sports management world, buying into the Montreal Canadiens for £100m. He supplemented this by buying into Liverpool in 2007 as part of a joint bid with Tom Hicks for the cash sum of £218m.
Tom Hicks is a Texan billionaire who controls assets in diverse fields such as sports, technology, steel, pet food, telecoms and medical equipment, largely via his Hicks Holdings company. His father owned several radio stations in Texas which gave a young Hicks the chance to try his hand at DJing, though he opted for a career in business. Hicks made his name as part of First National Bank’s venture capital group in the 80’s where he first became interested in leveraged buyouts, the process of using the target company’s assets as equity for the loans that are used to buy it. Hicks branched out for himself, going into partnership with lawyer-turned-venture-capitalist Bobby Haas in 1984 to create an equity fund of $88m. Over the next 5 years the pair would turn this into $1.3bn via the buyouts of many companies, most notably Dr Pepper & 7up which they successfully merged.
Hicks next venture was along similar lines, but for much higher stakes. Newly incorporated private equity firm Hicks Muse Furst and Tate raised $250m thanks to their early investments. In fact, during Hicks tenure as chairman the firm raised $12bn of private equity funds, turning it into $50bn thanks to more leveraged buy outs. During this time Hicks also began building his sports empire, buying the Dallas Stars ice hockey team in 1996 for $84m and the Texas Rangers baseball team in 1998 for $250m. Under his stewardship the Stars won the conference title 7 times and reached the Stanley Cup final twice, winning the title on 1 occasion. He also oversaw the design and construction of the award winning American Airlines Arena, the club’s new home. Success has not come so easily in the baseball world for the Texas Rangers despite Hicks’ $250m investment in record-breaking star Alex Rodriguez, who was unsurpisingly signed on the biggest sporting contract in history at the time.
Hicks stepped back from the management team of HMFT in 2004 to concentrate on his own family’s Hicks Holdings company, which controls his sporting and real estate assets along with his newer investments. The newest of his investments is of course Liverpool FC which he jointly bought with George Gillett and immediately leveraged the club securing loans against its assets to the value of £35om.
