Peston revealed the mystery man as Peter Lim, a Singaporean businessman with a fortune that Forbes Asia estimates at 1 billion pounds. It is believed that he was the front-runner for Liverpool just before the club announced a 300 million pound deal with NESV.
The NESV deal is conditional on the outcome of High Court action by RBS or Liverpool against the club’s current owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett.
Here’s an interesting tidbit for you. Peter Lim’s interest in English football is reportedly based on the fact that he owns several Manchester United themed bars across Asia; 14 of them, to be precise, according to a spokesman, although they are not official United bars.
Peter Lim was also “surprised and disappointed” that he wasn’t offered the chance to outbid NESV. He accepts, however, “that if it’s not possible, then it’s not possible”, and understands that NESV has a legal agreement in place to buy the club if the court action goes positively for RBS.
NESV queered the pitch slightly by briefing – or allowing briefing on their behalf – that they could walk away if Liverpool went into administration. This created a public perception that they are not as committed as they might have seemed originally. This wavering has allowed room for Lim to re-enter the fray, if only in PR terms.
Sporting intelligence has further established:
* Peter Lim opened talks with Liverpool as late as 22 September.
* Also know as Peter Lim Eng Hock, the basis of his fortune was agribusiness, property and latterly retail, with one early successful investment in Willmar putting him on the road to riches.
* Lim was nicknamed “King of the Remisiers” for his reputation as a consistent profit-making stockbroker.
* Now 57, he retired from his hugely lucrative stock broking work in the mid-90s when he was going through a divorce in which he sought custody of his children, then four and two. His daughter is now 18 and his son is 16.
* The divorce proceedings, from his ex-wife Madam Venus Teo Geok Fong, produced pages of gossipy details for Singapore’s newspapers for days on end in the 1990s.
* The divorce clearly had a major ongoing impact on his life and outlook. In an interview as recently as 2007, Lim said: “Money is a funny thing. When you don’t have it, you want it. But when you have it, you have a lot of problems. I believe that if I’d had no money, I wouldn’t have had my divorce. Things wouldn’t be good, but it wouldn’t end up in a divorce.”
* Lim has also said: “The money part of me – I just want to get away from it because I think that part of my life has given me a lot of trouble.”
* Lim’s philanthropy stretches beyond the SOF. Earlier this year he won the biggest libel payout in Singaporean history, and he doubled the Sing$220,000 award he received and donated it to educational charity.
* Lim is Singapore’s eighth richest man with a fortune estimated at $1.6 billion. He is a large shareholder in Singapore-listed Wilmar, the world’s largest palm oil firm, and Singapore fashion retailer FJ Benjamin.
According to a spokeswoman, Lim is prepared to make an improved offer and has written a letter to the Liverpool board.
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