Farhad Moshiri is reportedly seeking alternative investors to buy him out of his majority shareholding of Everton FC as doubts continue to mount over 777 Partners' ability to complete the takeover they agreed last September.
According to Tariq Panja of the New York Times, the Anglo-Iranian businessman has enlisted Deloitte to bring other potential buyers to the table as 777 struggle to raise the capital necessary to satisfy the Premier League's conditions for their approval as the Blues' new owners.
Those include repaying MSP Sports Capital the £158m they loaned Everton last year, placing £60m in escrow and converting to equity the reported £160m they themselves have given the Club in recent months to keep the construction of the new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock on track.
According to Panja, citing "people familiar" with the situation, while Moshiri continues to say that the agreement with 777 "remains in place", Deloitte have reached out to sovereign wealth funds in several Middle Eastern nations, including Qatar, to gauge their interest in purchasing his shares.
777 had a deadline of 15 April to repay the MSP loan but were granted an extension, assumed to be a few weeks to take them to around the end of the current season, by which time it would be clear whether Everton will be a top-flight club in 2024-25.
Since emerging as Moshiri's preferred bidders last summer, 777 have faced scrutiny over their operations and had their access to ready cash from the reinsurance business squeezed in large part by the decision by A-Cap to begin withdrawing their funds from subsidiary 777 Re.
