McNall’s 28% May Hold Up Sale of Kings : Hockey: Group led by billionaire Anschutz signs letter of intent, but bankruptcy could be a problem.

An investment group led by Colorado billionaire Philip F. Anschutz and Southern California developer Edward P. Roski Jr. has signed a letter of intent to buy the Kings, but it is far from a done deal.

A major stumbling block remains the 28% controlled by Bruce McNall’s bankruptcy trustee, R. Todd Neilson.

King chairman Joseph Cohen, in a statement on Friday, acknowledged the offer to purchase 100% of the team. Sources close to the negotiations said the complex deal is worth $75 million, but it isn’t a straight cash deal because there are other considerations, namely the 28% and other liens. The 28% is critical and essential because it includes an option to repurchase up to 80% of the team, according to McNall’s bankruptcy lawyer, Richard L. Wynne.

Because of that wrinkle, several sources questioned the likelihood of an eventual transaction. “It’s a deal shopping for a team,” one source said. “It’s going to have to satisfy a lot of people, that’s why I think it’s a possibility, not a probability.”

A written offer was submitted to majority owners Jeffrey P. Sudikoff and Cohen--who purchased 72% of the team for $60 million from McNall about a year ago--as well as to Neilson. The offer is subject to several other conditions as well as NHL approval.

Anschutz has been part of a group trying to bring an NHL team to Denver, but he has no plan to move the Kings. Sources say he wants to build a new arena for hockey and basketball in downtown Los Angeles near Dodger Stadium, on land near Chinatown owned by his company, Southern Pacific Railroad Corp.

Former Sony Pictures Entertainment Chairman Peter Guber and Los Angeles investment banker Gary Winnick also have been heavily involved in discussions and may eventually be investors, although an industry source said their role is unclear. Guber, in late 1993, was heavily involved in negotiations when Sony almost purchased both the Kings and the Lakers before McNall turned to telecommunications executives Sudikoff and Cohen.

Laker and Forum owner Jerry Buss, through his spokesman Bob Steiner, said he would have no comment on what is “the Kings’ business.”

Buss, as owner of the Forum, will also have a role to play in the negotiations, because the cash-starved Kings are under a long-term lease there, and he has been assisting Sudikoff and Cohen this past season. Sudikoff and Cohen have been hit by a series of problems since their purchase of the team--the 103-day NHL lockout this season and the failure of the team to reach the playoffs for the second consecutive season.

McNall’s problems, too, have cast a large shadow over the organization. The former majority owner pleaded guilty in December to two counts of bank fraud, one count of conspiracy and one count of wire fraud as he defrauded six banks of more than $236 million over a 10-year period. His sentencing, set for July 6, apparently has been delayed until January.

If successful, the Anschutz group would become the fifth owners of the Kings and the third since 1988. Anschutz, 55, is a reclusive Denver billionaire who made a fortune in oil as a young man when vast quantities of it were discovered on ranchland he owned in Utah and Wyoming. He then parlayed that fortune into shrewd investments in railroads, real estate and stocks.

Forbes magazine last year estimated his wealth at $1.9 billion in its report on the 400 wealthiest individuals in America. His 32% share of Southern Pacific stock gives him de facto control of that company, with a value there of about $1 billion. He has also been reported to be involved in a venture in Denver to build a new arena for the Denver Nuggets franchise of the NBA and possibly the Quebec Nordiques or an NHL expansion team.

Anschutz, a native of Kansas, is married and has three adult children, one of whom used to work in a Los Angeles law firm.

“He has done very well by his family and by Denver,” said Mike Furtney, a spokesman. But Furtney said he had not yet reached Anschutz to secure any comment on the offer to buy the Kings.

A Los Angeles attorney who knows Anschutz said Friday, “He’s a very quiet guy . . . a very solid guy.”

Roski, the other reported buyer, is an investor, real estate man and owner of the hotel portion of the Industry Hills and Sheraton Resort in the San Gabriel Valley.

Rarely interviewed, Anschutz sat down for a lengthy session with the trade industry publication Railway Age in 1993. Asked about his “enjoyment” of business, he said: “Let me leave you with one last thought. Some of the early speculation I saw in the press was that I am a rail fan. I’m not. This is not a hobby. This is a full-time business and a very serious one at that.”

He is also an avid collector of Western art, owning a collection reportedly worth $3 million. One railroad associate compared him to a fictional oil baron, saying: “I like to call him Blake Carrington. He owns everything.”

* Times staff writer James Bates contributed to this report.