777 Partners near £200m landmark with another Everton need looming

On Monday, 777 Partners edged a step closer to acquiring Everton after being afforded more time by a major club creditor to settle a £158m debt.

As part of the Premier League’s conditional approval of 777 Partners as new Everton owner, four conditions had to be met, with one of them the repayment of a loan provided to the club by New York-based MSP Sports Capital which was to mature this week.

MSP, who had been in talks with current Everton owner Farhad Moshiri over a convertible debt deal last year, one that would have seen them have the option to take a 25% stake in the club, ended up just providing financial assistance to the Toffees after the original deal was rejected by another major lender to the club, Rights and Media Funding Limited.

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But with the takeover saga rumbling on, with 777 having initially agreed to acquire Moshiri’s 94.1% shareholding seven months ago, the Premier League laid out a set of four conditions that the Miami-based firm had to meet in order to complete the deal.

Three of those conditions the firm believed they could have met in a short timeframe, which were the that 777 loans to the club have to be converted into equity; funds would be placed in an escrow account to meet financial obligations for the remainder of the season; and proof of funding for the new stadium completion would be forthcoming.

The repayment of the MSP loan was not something that 777 Partners felt it could complete ahead of Monday, given that the period between conditional approval and loan maturity was just three weeks.

More time has