Breaking: Joint Statement-Blue Heaven Holdings and The Friedkin Group.

Everton takeover news as Dan Friedkin’s group pull out of negotiations to buy the club from Farhad Moshiri

The proposed takeover of Everton by American billionaire Dan Friedkin has collapsed due to concerns over the financial exposure the club has to stricken investment firm 777 Partners. On Friday morning it was announced that The Friedkin Group, who had been in a period of exclusivity with Farhad Moshiri and his Blue Heaven Holdings Limited, the parent company of Everton, had pulled out of discussions during a period of due diligence.

Sources familiar with the matter that the ECHO has spoken to say that the decision was taken because of concerns around the £200m in funding that the club was provided by 777 Partners through junior debt, with the firm having been in the driving seat to buy the club until the end of May when they missed a deadline from Moshiri to repay a loan of £153m to MSP Sports Capital, a condition of them taking over.

With 777 Partners embroiled in a number of legal cases, some with claims of fraudulent activity, and with another Miami-based firm, A-CAP, who had been the primary source of funding for 777’s football activities, having taken prominence due to them wanting to reduce their exposure to 777, The Friedkin Group were ‘uncomfortable’ with the risk attached to the 777 debt to the club.

It was stressed that at no point during the due diligence did it emerge that the club was uninvestable, but it was a risk related to the controversial 777 firm, which faces selling its assets across the board, which includes several European football clubs, that was the sole reason for the move to end talks.

The Friedkin Group remain involved in the Everton saga, however, with one of the firm’s companies now a major creditor after repaying the MSP loan, a charge which was marked as satisfied on Companies House only this week.

However, sources say that there is no desire to swiftly seek their money back, and they will enter negotiations around what happens next around that debt with whoever comes to the table to take over the club moving forward, and that they will try and work to find the best solution for both parties.

What it means for Everton is that Moshiri will now have to go back to the drawing board in terms of interested parties, a number of whom have already shown their hand in terms of interest. They would be faced with the same 777 Partners issue, however, although some other parties may be more comfortable with taking that on board