We have discussed the Craig Whyte narrative here in some detail since October last year when we first suggested he was preparing to liquidate Rangers and attempt a prepack recovery. I expect this to be put into motion today.
You can ignore any meetings Duff and Phelps hold with prospective buyers of the club, this is window dressing. Craig Whyte and his partner company, Ticketus, are the only people in position to make a viable offer for the business. They hold security on the stadium and Murray Park with Ticketus owning the first 26,000 season tickets (approx.) sold for the next three years. It would cost approximately £40m to release Ticketus security plus whatever is owned to Whyte. No one will offer to cover these costs.
Expect Duff and Phelps to conclude their meetings and report that they are in possession of a genuine offer from Whyte/Ticketus, or their proxy, to buy the assets of the company. The proxy may be required as pretty much everyone who has touched this club in recent years would not be considered a Fit and Proper person and would fail the requirement not to be involved with an insolvency within the last five years.
The offer for all assets will be for a nominal amount and will be conditional on all legal action against Whyte or his companies being dropped. Duff and Phelps will accept the offer.
Whyte cannot afford to allow large scale redundancies as he needs to be able to sell these players in the summer or play those he is unable to sell. With the players not agreeing to a short-term cut in pay, he has to make his move now, despite the enormous risks involved in going early.
Duff and Phelps could have made redundancies 24 days ago and ensured the club would be able to finish the season, or at least survive until the tax verdict, but retaining the football squad was an important part of Whyte’s forward plan – and Whyte’s notional offer will have been known to them from the beginning.
HM Revenue and Customs will take a bath for their £75m, Whyte will emerge with all property assets and the football club, although the club will carry the significant burden of selling tickets for Ticketus.
The SPL board will have to vote within the next week on whether or not to allow Rangers Newco to continue with the same league membership as Rangers FC. Whyte will have to take an enormous chance that his proxy will be presentable enough to allow them to turn a blind eye to the enormously inappropriate behaviour.
The vote could go either way but I expect Celtic will be the only club to object.
The issue is complicated by legacy issues. Neither the SPL nor the SFA have acted on the improper registration of players matter yet. If any of the current Rangers team had their current season contracts registered with the alleged improper procedures, games involving those players will have to be awarded a 3-0 defeat to Rangers.
The SPL will have to come up with a verdict on this matter within days or else revisit the matter in a few weeks, after deciding on what to do with Rangers Newco.
The SPL must also consider the issue of precedent, the consequences of enabling a club to disenfranchise a £75m creditor cannot be underestimated.
HMRC may also have an input here. They stand to lose most from this deal and may seek court intervention, arguing that liquidating the company prior to the FTT verdict is unnecessary and prejudicial to their interests.
Issue six of CQN Magazine, the Fit and Proper edition, is set to become a landmark collectors item. You can browse the magazine online here but you can buy your own hard copy by clicking on the link below. Read with 20-20 vision…..
You can support the online edition by making a discretionary donation here.
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Channel 4 debate……….,
Why don’t Rangers fans just support Celtic when Glasgow becomes a one team toon?
Voting for anything else but integrity is a vote for the continuation of the Old Firm.
HH
Raman doesn’t look too happy on STV.
At the moment, there is one man who can throw a spanner in the works to this whole thing. His name is Dermot Desmond.
I feel he is watching how this is ultimately going to pan out. My general feeling is that Newco will get parachuted into SPL and a business as usual policy adopted for the start of next season.
The big picture here, and of most concern, is the 2 contract issue. We have lost millions if this is proved correct. The SFA must be held responsible for this and must be held to account.
As a member club, maybe somebody can clarify, can we hold our own investigation into this issue on the grounds that we were directly affected financially? We certainly have the financial means to do so. It would also push whole issue put into the public.
I wait with interest to see what DD’s take on this will be. Does not seem the type to take this lying down. Anything but.
Googybhoy
True but at least they were succinct and honest.
Still no a patch on our wee pal though :-)
Bourne
You’ve got me doubting that now!
A must visit site for all Celtic fans:
http://www.greatlittleideas.com/find-ideas/tag/jelly
Just had a phone call, youngest daughter is bringing her new boyfriend to meet the fholkers. I feel sorry for him because he is a currant bun and I know how much I’m going to torture him. Just made a new batch of jelly and SSN playing constantly on TV. Need to go and get changed, hoops top methinks.
Hail! Hail! PMTYH
Craig Levein…………….. Alastair’s next job will be easy compared to Rangers.
Does he have a date?
People in the Scottish media keep saying we have nowhere to go and “the English don’t want us” and so on.
I contend that the English don’t want the so-called “Old Firm” but with Celtic possibly having a strong case for wishing to move from a corrupt league setup, as opposed to just wanting to move to a bigger and more lucrative league, it might shock a lot of people if the club asked to be accepted “on their own” and were given a favourable response.
BSR
Don’t be silly. Surely you mean a Fenian …
The SFA would never use the word ‘Catholic’!!!
:-)))
MWD
Bada
I hope they haven’t!
Wee Chick talking up the takeover huns,King,Murray, shot down quickly by Spence.
New Kevin McKenna piece in the Grauniad just went up on their site.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/mar/08/death-rangers-scottish-football
It is very poor, like he phoned it in.
HT- you’ve got a point there….
HamiltonTim
Lots of ‘Hearts going out to Rangers, ‘
*bourne who hasn’t a clue where this will end*
I haven’t seen this post from RTC copied on to here yet-apologies if someone beat me to it.
It’s a very involved piece,and seems to be damning,if true. There is no reason to believe thatit isn’t,btw
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100bjd says:
08/03/2012 at 4:16 pm
11 0 Rate This
My one hour due diligence on Worthington and The Jerome Pension Fund as agreed:
The Worthington Group was originally admitted to the Official List as a textile manufacturer, with UK-based trading businesses. The men behind the business were, the respected Joe Dwek of Bodycote fame, plus ex Manchester United director Michael Edelson. Most investors backed their names and regrettably have suffered.With UK textiles collapsing, a programme of disposals was entered into from the late 1990s, and now the Company no longer owns any trading businesses – although it retains a 44% holding in an operating company, Trimmings by Design Limited – with its main asset being a property site in Keighley, Yorkshire. The company has a market cap of sub £2m and has pinned all it’s hopes on acheiving planning permission for the now empty site in Keighley. As I understand it thing are not going well in this regard! Joe Dwek and Micheal left the company in 2010.
The company seems to make consistent losses except for last year when they recorded a massive profit of circa £2m………….they also managed to burn cash of £600k in the process………….so the accountants on this blog will be screaming…………..they revalued the Keighley asset to create a headline figure…………and the tax boys are going to comment that this is a very inefficient way of organising your tax…….and then guys like me are going to think that pension covenants relative to assets etc might be getting breached otherwise why would you do this? The company balance sheet shows it effectively owes the Pension Fund nearly circa £3m and it repays the fund at circa £110k per annum. You can see a bit of pattern here relative to the somewhat interesting treatment of tax. Although decidedly not interesting if you actually have to pay it!
Anyway a company called Regenesis Holdings which is owned by a Wulstan Earley (who has not seen Craigy since joining Jody Kidd in a foursome {GOLF TYPE LADS!} some two years ago). Regenesis now own 15% of this PLC which is a major feat because they have been recipients of three first gazettes from Companies House and the last one was only suspended just befor Christmas 2011. In football terms these are yellow cards and trust me they are not good! One of the other major shareholders in this business is Liberty Capital of Route de Tulex8, 1266, Duiller, Geneva. I must be very careful of all company names here as Wulstan has owned a raft of mostly deceased companies, one of which is called Liberty Capital Markets. I then unearthed some financial description apertaining to Liberty Capital which read “Liberty Capital was founded by entrepreneur Craig Whyte and has offices in Geneva and Scotland. Liberty currently has investments across several market sectors including Marketing, Communications, Ticketing and Commodities Trading, with operations in the UK, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Russia and France. Wulstans other deceased companies seemed to be in the media and catering fields. Very interesting to note that ticketing trading was mentioned!! Equally I suppose Wulstan’s undoubted experience of catering would have been an asset in the Ibrox kitchens fiasco!
So Liberty Capital has a place in Geneva and is reputed to be owned by Craigy. The same company alledgedly shares an investment in a bombed out PLC owned by a company which in turn is owned by a man last seen by Craigy as looking curiously at Jodie Kidd. Well! Well! Well! I am sure that i have got this all wrong as there are probably millions of Liberty Capitals around. The other slightly worrying thing here, especially if you are in the Jerome Pension Fund which has about £3m cash is that during the time that Joe Dwek, Michael Edelson and the finance director leaving plus a new auditor the fund appointed a new financial consultant.
There was an interesting comment on one of the Worthington bulletin boards this morning
“I would have thought that the local authorities would be generally supportive of a development of disused indusrial land that falls within their development plan area.Getting financial backing for such a plan may be the biggest hurdle.There is no obvious shortage of development sites in the area.
I suspect any recent weakness in the shareprice may be down to the “Craig Whyte” factor whose arrival on the share register I noted here in 2010.
During this one hour of rough due diligence I noted that on of the Rangers boards have come to the same conclusion although they are quoting amazing percentages such Worthington is owned 75% by Regenesis etc. This cannot be true as the company is a PLC and yo begin to wander into conditional offerland and company transparency etc so they are on the right track but totally wrong on their numbers. The same board suggested that this was Craigy’s plan to stack the percentages on the CVA! What CVA…………………………………………………………………!!! If i get a bit more time I will have a look at the Pension fund although I can see all kinds of ways I could invest these good peoples £3m funds in a prominent Scottish Football club…….
Hope this helps guys…………………keep going!
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There are follow-ups on RTC which are well worth a read too.
Rangers fan struggling to speak English on Snyde,,,,,,Mmmm hun struggling to speak English,nothing unusual there then!!
Hail hail
googyboy
I did not get any sense from him they should feel humility, did not read his book on Big Jock take your word for that and why would he favour us over them?
ibleedgreenandwhite1 on 8 March, 2012 at 18:28 said:
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Leave Mr Dalziel alone, he’s trying his best…
HH
Giggs
GiggsyBhoy on 8 March, 2012 at 18:32 said:
ibleedgreenandwhite1 on 8 March, 2012 at 18:28 said:
—–
Leave Mr Dalziel alone, he’s trying his best…
HH
Giggs
Ha ha ha ha ha ha DDDD LLLLL is doing a fine job!!
Hail hail
MWD
The Rangers fans are blaming the SFA. for not doing this before Craig Whyte took over.
I say blame the media for the inventing a MBB
I think that Dermot Desmond will be more irritated by the fact that our and his preaching and following of sensible and legal policies and business practiced will be made too look exceptionally stupid and confirmation that he might soon be Ally Dicks bitch might indicate that Newco happening is just as bad as two contracts.
Who wants to do business in the Wild West.
HH
ibleedgreenandwhite1 on 8 March, 2012 at 18:33 said:
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I actually cringe for him, when he’s on a panel with intellects like Graham Spiers, and to a lesser degree, Guidi & King. And if he says “at this moment in time” once, he says it 12 times in a 2hr slot. Mindblowing stuff!
HH
Giggs
BSR
Them dafties only need go look in a mirror if the want to find the We Are The People to blame.
Honestly. You ever came across such a grouping of muppets in your life as Huns.
MWD
Listening here to Chick Hun mumbling through his interpretation of the rules, it strikes me that we will badly miss Paul McBride’s forensic skills and stout defence of our club.
I hope we have to hand another friendly QC who can represent our interests as well as Paul. I think we may need one.
We all knew discussion of a Newco would xcome and that the media would push for it to be parachuted into the SPL
But what is so sickening is the sense of entitlement and the lack of any recognition of why the huns are in thus state. Anyone arguing against is simply dismissed.
This is not something that has happened to them. This is the inevitable result of many years spent cheating football and cheating the tax man.
The notion that a club should be enabled and supported through a process of avoiding all debts to go on as before is truly disgusting.
But why am I surprised? This is huns doing what huns do.
Is Dee- ell pretending to be that stupid?
If he were that daft surely he would have to remember to breathe?
“Ah know uv a club rat budgets fur staying in 11th place”- what does that even mean?
Is he speaking in zen koan riddles?
Dawell ‘lo & behold’ what YOU should have found out numbnuts!!!!
……and still very few highlight Murrays role .. Whyte did what he said all along.. Due diligence lol must ve been done on Whyte… Murray is the cause of it all.. Dear Media.. Tell it as it is .. I can’t be the only Celtic fan beginning to warm to Whyte… He s taking Rangers for the mugs they are…
Fantastic …
HH
Anybody heard from John fae Coo’caddens…am really worried!
How can Dave King be a fit and proper person?
sixtaeseven:
Got your e-mail, replied and sent your details to Catach.
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
Duff & Phelps have just got ranjurz into Europe, they’ve just signed Engelbert Humperdink!
Would appreciate some thoughts on this train of thought from the CQN guys…
On the surface of these statements there’s usually not much info but sometimes if you look a little closer you might find something.
If you look at the statement Rangers are potentially in breach of rules under the following criteria.
“Specifically, areas of potential breach to be considered by the Judicial Panel include:
· Obligations and duties of members
· Official return
· Financial records
· Division of receipts and payment of expenses (Scottish Cup)
If you look at the SFA articles of association, ‘Official return’ relates to Craig Whyte’s non-disclosure of that fact he was disqualified as a director.”
‘Obligations and duties of members’ is just a general article based around not being in breach of any articles of association (as far as I can see).
The ‘Division of receipts and payment of expenses (Scottish Cup)’ clearly relates to the non-payment of ticket money to Dundee United and the SFA.
Now, the one that is interesting me is under ‘Financial Records’. I’ll post the article relevant to this in full:
“FINANCIAL RECORDS
12. All clubs and recognised football bodies shall keep and maintain for a minimum
period of 5 years detailed financial books and records in connection with their
trading activities including without prejudice to the foregoing generality details of
the ground and stand admissions, members tickets, turnstile arrangements and all
other related activities.
12.1 The Board may arrange for an inspection of all such books, records and details for
any purpose, including but not limited to, National Club Licensing. Such inspection
may be conducted by the Board, such authorised employees of the Association, the
Association’s auditors or other professional advisers duly appointed by the Board
on giving to any club or recognised football body reasonable notice of its intention
to do so.
Furthermore, all payments, whether made by the club or otherwise, which are to
be made to a player solely relating to his playing activities must be fully recorded
within the relevant written agreement with the player prior to submission to this
Association and/or the recognised football body of which his club is in membership”
Based on information we currently know that’s in the public domain, it looks to me like Rangers are in breach of only one part of that. The part about “all payments for playing activities must be lodged with the association”. It’s unlikely Rangers haven’t kept financial records for the past five years and although Stewart Regan asked for details relating to Craig Whyte to be sent to the SFA earlier in the season, as far as I know the SFA didn’t attempt to investigate or inspect the financial dealings of Rangers Football Club.
That to me, on my reading of it, looks like confirmation that the SFA have found them to be paying players on the side specific to their playing activities.
Which is big news.
Any thoughts?
How did Scottish football ever succeed before the sky money?
I’m beginning to think football didn’t exist before satellite tv…did it?
Really easy to see Jabba’s agenda; blaming everything on Whyte and the football authorities enquiries are meaningless because his new hero Murray wasn’t involved.
Trouble is for lots of it he was there. Our hero cannot be blamed for everything.
Craig Whyte – STEP UP OR PAY UP.
Who held up a banner with above statement?
a)The SFA
b)The SPL
c)The Media
d)WE ARE THE PEOPLE
e)All of the above
MWD
Hello from my brand new I pad.
Awe Naw
We have never been in such a strong position. The whole of Scottish football from the SFA down is our bitch now.