News that Rangers’ liquidators BDO have raised an action against the club’s administrators, Duff & Phelps, transported me back to an item we discussed in 2012.
By 31 October 2012 Newco was enjoying life under Charles Green, then heralded like some latter day Osmond brother, but all of us on CQN were more sceptical at the time. This is from the blog that day, titled Gratuitous Alienation rears its head again:
“I see Charles Green dismissed out of hand the suggestion that his new company’s property assets were worth in the region of £8.5m, as suggested in a recent blog [he may be referring to Celtic Quick News, but we made no comment on what the assets were actually worth], although he refrained from disputing heads of terms exist for the sale and leaseback of Ibrox, Murray Park and the Albion Car Park [which CQN reported].
Green told Talk Sport, “The blog I’ve seen said that we’re going to enter into a sale and leaseback for £8.5m, you can shove the offer where the sun don’t shine. We’ve got a valuation in the share prospectus in excess of £80m.”
Mr Green is clearly an experienced negotiator.I am grateful to Paul McConville, who yesterday employed our favourite legal term, Gratuitous Alienation. It was June this year when Celtic Quick News suggested:
“Gratuitous Alienation [will]enter the lexicon soon. Gratuitous Alienation is the Scots legal term describing when property (or cash) is transferred to another party without any, or adequate, consideration.”
Paul reminds us that “Mr Green bought all the assets, including the right to over £3 million in cash due to the former Rangers, at a cost of £5.5 million. Now he says that the fixed assets are worth in excess of £80 million, and that a sale and leaseback at a price of £8.5 million is nonsense.“If BDO challenges the transaction as a gratuitous alienation, then it is for the purchaser to establish that “adequate consideration” was paid for the assets. That is NOT the same as saying it was the best offer anyone made.
“If BDO do raise a court action, I struggle to see how Mr Green can state that he has paid “adequate consideration” for the assets. Maybe someone could ask him”.
I am absolutely sure Mr Green will be able to demonstrate that he paid adequate consideration for the assets. He is a resourceful and experienced businessman. If anyone is going to find newly established oil under the Ibrox pitch, he will.
I am also sure that BDO are far too busy to worry about such questions and that the interests of creditors are best served by forgetting about this whole business. Haven’t these poor creditors been through enough?”
It’s worth reminding everyone that Charles Green acquired the assets in question (Ibrox, Albion, Murray Park, trademarks and other IP) on behalf of Newco Rangers (called Sevco Scotland Ltd at the time of acquisition). The BDO case against Duff & Phelps is the next front in this story. If successful, it will not be the last.
How we miss Paul McConville’s analysis. After all this time I didn’t think this was going to happen. It’s been years since I’ve touched this stuff, I’d moved on.
‘Here we go again……….’
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What?
Podium????
PAUL67
Cue Masonic distress signals and total silence from the usual suspects.
Kitalba, multiple clear breaches, straight red. If you want your account restored I will need assurances regarding future behaviour.
Paul McConville, in addition to being something of an oracle on the Law, was one of the nicest persons I’ve ever met. A lovely man, much missed.
MACJAY1 FOR NEIL LENNON on 8TH FEBRUARY 2017 11:25 AM
GREENPINATA on 8TH FEBRUARY 2017 10:32 AM
Class , to me , is an old fashioned label which now has little if any meaning.
Wealth , imho , is the criterion which now determines status.
For some.
Interesting to think that the seemingly unbreakable link between Unions and the Labour party is now under threat.
Perhaps because the clout of the Labour party itself is under threat.
The Jeremy factor.
Damn! If I hadn’t read the article I’d have won :-))
Paul67
no mention of accounting illiteracy – well that’s a good start
stillnotahappybloggerCSC
What?
VFR800 IS NOW A MONSTER 821 on 8TH FEBRUARY 2017 10:04 AM
BIG PEAT OF ISLAY✝ on 8TH FEBRUARY 2017 5:49 AM
For one who purports to be Christian that is, IMHO, possibly the most un-Christain post I have read on here!
It’s certainly not the view of Christianity my God preaches.
_————-_——————_——————_———————_
I disagree. It’s unchristian to show false Mercy.
What i want to know what has taken them so long?
Very interesting stuff! Looking forward to seeing how this one plays out.
Here is my new piece about furious, jealous Sevco fans…
https://theclumpany.wordpress.com/2017/02/07/sevco-fans-rage-at-a-new-green-look/
Simple questions from a simple man – other than yet another legal battle and an enjoyable diversion for us, can this in any way have any effect on Sevco? Can it effect their status? Can it effect their future? Does it effect their wealth or lack of it?
Or is it just lawyers fighting between themselves for more money?
Paul67
I read that Paul McConville article from an SFM link and thought more unraveling is on its way. As I sometimes say “Infinite patience produces immediate results” and this latest news is part of the patience.
The truth is a lava bubbling below the surface and all clubs including Celtic should be preparing for an eruption this year so that they don’t get swept away.
Same goes for some msm. Broadfoot is not leaving SFA for a better job. He is moving to higher ground. Others should be keeping their collective ear to the ground lest they get swept away in a wave of truth.
BPOI. 1131
So,not a big reader of either Shakespeare or The Bible?
Can’t say I’m surprised,really…
VFR800 IS NOW A MONSTER 821 on 8TH FEBRUARY 2017 11:36 AM
Does anybody actually use that in seriousness these days? I’ve only ever heard it as a comedy taunt. I accept it’s not easy for that to come across in writing though.
Surely Chuckles just needs to say ibrox is a crumbling dump and worth next to nothing.
Awe_Naw_No_Kitalba_Aff_Anaw_Noo
BIG PEAT OF ISLAY✝ on 8TH FEBRUARY 2017 11:31 AM
I rest my case!
KTF
Question in all of this is: When doesn D&P’s professional liability insurance kick in?
If the insurer has discretion to settle claims on behalf of the client, then the likelihood is that BDO will quietly bank a few million for the Creditors without much outlay, and we’ll be none the wiser.
If the insurer pays out only after an adverse judgement, then we’re likely to get some further insight into how it all played out. For example, the vexing issue of the Switcheroo from Sevco 5088 to Sevco Scotland might finally get some clarity, the 5 Way agreement might be presented in evidence, lots of loose ends to tie up in public.
There would need to be a fair old stockpile of popcorn if it ever got to court, but as we’ve seen with virtually everything about this saga, the court is the last place most of the protagonists want to end up.
And from a reputational perspective, it’s unlikely D&P would welcome the damage. The incentive to settle is considerable.
I’d be fascinated to hear the evidence led in court, but I doubt we’ll ever get to that point.
Pity.
Paul67, great article. Maybe (hopefully) it’s all now coming home to roost!
If 9and it’s a big IF) BDO are successful then an obvious conclusion is that Charlie “Big ‘ands” and his cohorts were complicit in Gratuitous Alienation; and that’s a real can of worms!
The main thing her though is that maybe some justice for (and money) the creditors can be forthcoming!
KTF
VFR800 is now a Monster 821 on 8th February 2017 11:36 am
I understand where you are coming from but from my perspective the Antipodean posters (at least the ones I recognise) seem to spend all their time on the blog either sowing discord or picking fights. I think most folks are bored to death of it all. I make a point most of the time now of only reading European time zone posts and keep away from the far right and religious bores.
WEEMINGER on 8TH FEBRUARY 2017 11:40 AM
Growing up in the Drum, it was a vicious insult and designed to upset and hurt.
I don’t ever see it as comedic at all. Neither, it seems, did Kit!
KTF
Favours will be called in. Murmurings behind closed doors in masonic chambers, barely audible above the clinking of regalia. In a far off room with straw covered floor, the faint, mournful bleating of a captive goat……..
Dear SFA,
Will Sevco still be deed if they ban green boots?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPw-3e_pzqU
TIMMY7_NOTED on 8TH FEBRUARY 2017 11:51 AM
On the whole, I tend to agree.
However, I enjoy Macjay’s
ramblingsposts and I find that although he is often diametrically opposed to me in the political sphere he is not mean spirited or deliberately abusive.I had a spat with Kit last week; more of a misunderstanding but no harm done and we both moved on.
However, Big Peat’s insult yesterday was, IMHO, beyond the pale.
KTF
‘
”When at first we set out to deceive…….” por cierto
SOUTH OF TUNIS 10:48 AM
I got that track on one of those ugly two albums as one CDs – Woman Is Sweeter/Shapes of Rhythm – about 10 years ago after I’d heard it as I loitered in a clothes shop I always go to when I’m back in Belfast.
The guys who run it would have been at the same gigs that I went to when younger and it’s good to know that proper choons mean as much to them now as they did then.
But BDO were appointed by HMRC?
ergo this BDO action is being orchestrated by HMRC?
i.e HMRC are pulling the strings.
Why?
Because if GA of the assets is proven, then HMRC will swoop on the Big Hoose and Auchenshoogle?
Or am I reaching?
MACJAY1 FOR NEIL LENNON on 8TH FEBRUARY 2017 11:28 AM
‘Class , to me , is an old fashioned label which now has little if any meaning.’
###
A bit like the word Club, then.
As in Football Club.
In Scotland nowadays it means just whatever you want it to mean.
Awe naw no the Aussies aff anaw noo :-((((
H.H Mick
Deniabhoy
I cannot see any direct consequences for the current football operation at Ibrox.
However there are unforseen consequences and if the message being set out by BDO to Administrators called in to take over a football club is that their prime responsibility is to creditors and not the football industry or the continunity of a club in that industry, then that is a deterrent not only to attempting to do what RFC and SFA/SPFL did but to all clubs that if you live beyond your means, go bust and leave creditors out of pocket then keeping a club “alive” is of a lower priority than meeting their debts and if a club can no longer operate as a result then so be it.
In fact had Ibrox been sold along with the other assets all that would have been left is the idea of Rangers and based on how good an idea RFC were, something more real and long lasting could have taken its place.
Ibrox is an albatross as is the continuation of the idea of Rangers as what? A protector and bastion of protestantism?
An idea sufficient in strength and numbers that enough supporters of that idea could gather around and create from?
All we are seeing here is the underlying principles of justice and fairness that become enshrined (sometimes badly worded) in law asserting themselves.
Those who think they can ignore that reality should get a reality check using a moral compass.
Paul67 – you should really have run the article past Arnold before posting…
Meanwhile after all the smoke and mirrors about muslims and mexicans Trumps real work is underway
http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/paul-krugman-trump-s-economic-policy-is-about-screwing-the-little-guy-1.2966900
THE BATTERED BUNNET on 8TH FEBRUARY 2017 11:49 AM
Not sure what sort of excess a firm that size would have, though presumably that would be determined by the size of the business withing each legal jurisdiction, rather than globally. But, given the inference that people may not have been playing with straight bats in all of this, I’d imagine the insurers would be looking very carefully as to exactly how far the cover extends.
A cock up is one thing, a conspiracy entirely different.
Auldheid
It was the strangest admin I had ever seen, they continued as if nothing had changed, no apparent effort made to cut costs, and if I remeber even tried to sign players , does that not add to the costs?
I said yesterday this will be settled out of court by Duff and Phelps or their professional indemnity insurance will pay out, I cannot see all the dirty washing being aired in court although would love James Dolemit.an to cover
THE BATTERED BUNNET
Driving ???.
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