Gillett Denies Sports Sale

Sports tycoon George Gillett has angrily denied newspaper reports that he’s about to offload his sports interests, although most of the substance of the stories appeared to be provided by his colleagues.

“What was told to the media was that we are doing some estate planning and looking at various assets to see whether we should refinance them, sell them, buy them, nothing urgent, we were just starting the process,” Gillett told the Sportaccord Convention, the annual gathering of leading international sports execs held in Denver March 23-27.

“The need to make headlines sometimes transcends research,” he observed after various sports news services quoted NHL communications VP Donald Beauchamp saying the Gillett family has retained the services of four financial advisers in order to “optimize the value of its corporate assets.”

“We had engaged six investment advisers and it got reported as four and that we were selling assets as opposed to estate planning,” he said, calling the reports an attack on his family’s privacy.

Canadian French-language daily La Presse claimed Gillett hired firms in Europe, the United States and Canada to look at all of his sports properties, which include the NHL’s Montreal Canadiens and his half-share in U.K. Premier League soccer team Liverpool FC.

Canadiens president Pierre Boivin told La Presse the decision to sell was linked to the economic crisis and banks’ unwillingness to finance even very good projects.

The news will come as no surprise in the U.K., where Gillett and Liverpool co-owner Tom Hicks – who have been the butt of fans’ protests – have been rumoured to be at the point of selling for more than a year.