So you buy a business and then find that the entire structure and assets of company are subject to a police investigation, where it is alleged that the assets were criminal acquired. That’s a serious problem, but one which will take several years to manifest. Let’s call that Problem A.
Problem B is that you have also established that the business needs to raise cash. This is an acute problem which will manifest in a matter of months.
What’s the prognosis?
It could be 2018 before a verdict on Problem A, the criminal trial, is reached. If it’s not guilty, there are no consequences. If it’s guilty, the rightful owners of the criminally acquired assets can apply to the court to recover them. This doesn’t mean they will apply, but if they do, it’s highly likely that the court will make the award in favour of the rightful owners.
For our example, the rightful owners are creditors of a failed business, represented by a liquidator. It’s the liquidators job to get as much money for the creditors as possible, and in this instance, HMRC is the creditor with overwhelming influence.
There’s an added complexity. Although none of your directors are contaminated by the criminal investigation, there’s a concern that some of the accused are beneficiaries of shares in the company, or commercial contracts which the company has entered into. In short, the accused have left the stage, but they could still have a considerable financial interest in the success of the business, which may steel the resolve of the most influential creditor, HMRC. HMRC know such tactics well and would be reluctant to allow a convicted criminal to profit from their enterprises.
As far as Problem A is concerned, you have to allow the law to take its course and hope for a not guilty verdict. Should a guilty verdict transpire, you then have to hope to cut a deal with the liquidator (representing HMRC et al) to allow you to continue to retain title to the assets.
If the creditor was malleable, willing to come and go with you, this would be possible. Especially as the liquidator may have the opportunity of pursuing the professional indemnity (PI) insurance of some of the accused, who provided professional services relating to the transaction. Grab the PI money for the creditors and allow you, your shareholders, and the beneficiaries of your commercial contracts, to continue to benefit from ownership of the assets.
A great deal of uncertainty surrounds this, however. You would make it your business to get as close as possible to the liquidator. Make sure there’s no limit to the hospitality on offer, but ultimately, HMRC will decide how matters proceed. It may even be the case that PI money is pursued, and the assets are recovered and put on the market. There will, after all, be an eye-watering level of professional fees to cover.
Problem B is, as I said, more acute. Raising money for a business which is losing money and burning cash is difficult enough, but if there is a possibility the business has been built upon criminally acquired assets, the challenge is herculean.
The criminal trial may not conclude until 2018 (or later), and it could take a couple of years thereafter for the liquidator to petition the court for the assets and then dispose of them. In short, the assets could come back onto the market around 2020.
Problem B is for you to fund a trading deficit until 2018, then hibernate for a couple of years, and bid enough to buy the assets at auction in 2020.
In the short term all you can do is try to convince as many people as possible to become co-investors. Or put the money in yourself, of course (sorry, I know how you feel about that prospect). Then you could shower the liquidator with the kind of corporate hospitality illustrated in The Wolf of Wall St, and hope you’ve got enough credit with them to have them batting for you at the creditors’ meeting.
The prognosis? It’s not the fact that you are possibly trading with criminally acquired assets, or that your entire enterprise could be shut down with the drop of a sheriff’s gavel, that would worry me. There’s nothing you can do about that, so ignore it. The big worry is how raise the £25m to keep the lights on until you discover if you’re business’s founding fathers acted within the law.
Good luck with that.
This is an absolute minefield. No one is in control. Three years ago I suggested the best thing to do was to start from scratch at another location, this is the only way to proceed with certainty.
Share premises in Paisley, or Cowdenbeath or wherever will take you. Hope that you can carry some brand affinity (although clearly you’ll not be able to use any disputed IP, including brand names). Appoint reputable people to your board and get back to doing what you really want to do.
Behold to no one contaminated by the decades of misrule. Cut loose those who hold the onerous contracts. Allow the assets to come back onto the market in due course, knowing that by then you have all the customer goodwill you need to ensure there is no point in anyone bidding against you at auction.
The future will be nothing like the past, but at least you’ll have a future.
Celtic are the first UK club to react to the refugee crisis
“This is absolutely the right thing for us to do. Our club was formed by immigrants, many of whom had escaped the devastation of the great famine.” Tony Hamilton, Celtic FC Foundation CEO.
Proceeds from Sunday’s Jock Stein 30th Anniversary game will go to alleviating suffering of the refugees. The club will appoint a charity with expertise to ensure the assistance is productive.
I know we go on about the Foundation a lot, but it’s the most important part of our club, today and every day. Never let this change.
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Hello again all you young rebels.
Don’t know what’s happening with the blog nowadays but it seems everybody who
posts nowadays disagrees with somebody else, now back in the old days it was much easier
we just met up at Celtic park and battered lumps out of one another with screwtaps,
( beerbottles for the young dudes) usually it was the Cumbie (TD67) Norman conks
Shamrock or the Posse, it was great for us young sprats if you managed to avoid being hit
with a missile then you just waited until all the casualties were carted away and then you
pounced to get your hands on the coveted screwtaps, thrupence a bottle, carpetbaggers
are us lol.
Great to see Celtic on national sports news down here because of Tom Rogic, normally you
never see anything of Scots football even when our club wins a cup final but that bhoy has
got Oz talking , on one of the sports programmes they are saying he will be the midfield
lynchpin for the next ten years, who am i to argue, and when they lead with.
U.K giants Celtic, then i’m loving that.
Does anyone else see his languid style the same as Requelme who we were trying to sign?
H.H Mick
Lived in EK 62 – 74….No RC school in the area, had to attend Primary 1&2 at a n other school, When the RC School was ready for us to move into, they had built it next door to the Slaughter Hoose , smell was mingin….Hun Planners I think !!!!!
Sally at the beach………. Hope this works
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1466286220346025&id=100008939821986
Didn’t work sorry.
Brisbane 67. The Calderwood is hun city. Most of East Kilbride is in the sense that there are supporter/zombie buses from different areas. I don’t know where Jobo’s from but I know what you mean about Calderwood.
Gie a name. Gie a name.
Calderwood was my area, only Tim in ajoining 5 streets, took me 15 mins to walk to ma pals…
Melbourne Mick.
Requelme.
A great player, if Tom ends up half as good as him I will be delighted.
Bringing his name up reminds me of the time I wound up a thick hun in the pub. He thought Requelme would be a good signing for the mighty gers
Requelme’s first names are Juan Roman. He was foaming at the mouth when I told him Requelme was Spanish for Catholic and that they would be signing Juan Roman Catholic. I couldn’t believe he actually believed me. Needless to say he no longer wanted to sign him.
I think that bloke brennan would be an excellent ceo
Virgil Van Dyke, promising mid-Eredivisie defender bought for £2.5 mill, sold on three years later as a new Dutch international for £13 mill.
In CEO terms, PL scored a hat-trick in a CL game with that one.
Fraser Forster a year before, ditto.
You’ll find his stock pretty high in ‘the CEO world’, i.e ‘Corporateland’.
Any petty arguments about should’ve, would’ve , could’ve on here are rendered moot when he keeps pulling them out the bag like that, becasue as remits go, those transactions are the bottom line he thuds his finger against when anyone with an opinion that matters offers critique.
If the shoe was on the other foot and he was pulling such stunts to helps the Huns prosper and being viewed as using his influence to keep us ‘under control’ there would be longing posts on here bemoaning us not having someone of equal pwer/guile.
I don’t agree with many of his recent policies – in particular his clumsy handling of the GB debacle after Motherwell; his communication with the fan base could be better (isn’t that the PR dept’s job tho’? – their arses in line for a kicking?) but fiscally? In our unique little Scottish football cauldron of prosperous poverty, it is difficult to argue with the bottom line.
Sandman. 12.29
Pretty much nail on head.
Malta Mick – 15 minutes? Your pals in East Mains or the Murray…
Gerry ftb
I pass Carsons every Sat night on the way home from the arms .
To paraphrase someone else ..
.. a permanent reminder of a permanent embarrassment and an occasional disgrace
Jimmynotpaul
Is it just me or do you see a similarity?
St Leonard’s….
Fred Colon
Back in the day I played on a Sunday afternoon for Connexions which was obviously the Whifflet Arms !!!!!
St Stivs
That Brennan guy wouldn’t take a drop in wages
Melbourne Mick.
I understand where you are coming from with his languid style.
When I watched Requelme he was at his peak. Tom has a long way to go to reach his accuracy of a pass and his vision but he is still young.
Requelme always seemed to have time on the ball, Tom gets caught in possession, but here’s hoping.
Martin bain
La dolca viita for Tennants lager as sales soar in Italy. Sales of Tennants lager in Italy have rocketed 57% to 3.6 million litres a year. The Scottish tipple is regarded in Italy as a sophisticated drink and is increasingly to be seen being sipped by urbane Italians in pizzas in preference to local brews such as Peroni, Birds Moretti and Nastro Azzurro. Sunday Herald. Who’d a thunk it.
Jimmynotpaul
Never heard the Simon Donnelly story brilliant, never liked SD much one night after the BoS mob beat us at Crltic park he was in Angels in Uddingston laughing and joking with Raymond McStay and others, I was sitting as if my world had ended beaten again by them but thankfully I didn’t lower myself to say anything to him
Melbourne Mick nobody is falling out live your posts so keep them coming
TD67 not sure if you will like this but I think we are much the same I blame my Celtic daft supporting father !
Hail Hail
What’s going to happen when Peter Lawwell retires?
Will the club collapse immediately or will it go into a long, slow, irreversible decline?
Thon “Peter”…………(no Him,……….. the other wan)
The Blog’s foremost successful industrialist – He whose pish is cold Dos Equis and his every utterance heavily soaked in importance……..aye, him – The Most Inteteresting Blogger In His World.
God bless him – Oh Aye…….
………. he’s a ‘keeper.
HH
Folks can I point out that the senior Police officer who has been charged with Sectarian related offences has not been moved TO the Gartcosh Unit – she has been moved FROM it to the Admin offices in Dalmarnock.
Secondly, there are great video pieces showing the outstanding welcome the people of Germany have given to the arriving refugees. The people of Stuttgart and Munich should take a bow for turning up in their hundreds with food, water, clothes , toys and other supplies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVLNSOvpmT8
Sandman on 6th September 2015 12:29 pm
Good Afternoon
To give a balance to this, we would have to compare against all the duds purchased. Also, not sure whether PL is directly responsible for the purchases and selling of the players, so difficult to give him credit for this unless he is playing his very own Championship Manager Live.
In terms of returning profit and shareholder value in the last 2-3 years, PL has been very successful. Again this has to balanced with the constant rebuilding process and bi-annual disruption to the spine of the squad.
HH
CRC
cqnbadges@gmail.com
Proudbhoy
Totally agree, we both want the very best on the park, we all have varied opinions but definitely want the best for Celtic
Jimmynotpaul
Most of the great players always looked as though they had time on the ball
and that was what made them unique but when you are being bombarded with
EPL shoite daily on the news here it’s great to hear the Tic get a mention.
I dont suppose you are old enough to remember the great Billy Price, now he’ a
player that equates with Tom Rogic but maybe without the beer belly, i wonder
if any of the auld yins remember him?
H.H Mick
CELTICROLLERCOASTER
I’ve been posting on the blog for six years. In that time the approval rating here for PL has plummeted.
A lot to be said for the five year shelf life of a CEO in any business.
FWIW,I think he got his fingers burned with the Gravesen situation and vowed to avoid a repeat. Can’t blame him for feeling that way. IIRC his wages and transfer fee came to £9m.
As I’ve said before,I admire his financial results. I disagree with his methods of achieving them. The drop on season-ticket sales suggests I’m not alone.
ERNIE LYNCH on 6TH SEPTEMBER 2015 12:49 PM
What’s going to happen when Peter Lawwell retires?
Will the club collapse immediately or will it go into a long, slow, irreversible decline?
https://hbr.org/2014/11/the-best-performing-ceos-in-the-world
take your pick
HH
Morning all .
Big article about St Pauli in Guardian for those interested.
MELBOURNEMICK
Billy Price? Did he not get a hat-trick of penalties?
As I understand it there was a fair bit of social engineering involved when the overspill population from Glasgow was relocated to East Kilbride, more so than with any of the other Scottish new towns, and it would be interesting to know whether, and to what extent, sectarianism played any part in the process.
Just popped by to say thank you to CQN and associated posters, roasters, rockets and posseurs for making this a place of overwhelming good.
Of course we see disruption and divergence from trolls, invested self interests and those who are just simply agitators, but as a whole, if we treat each other with respect, I can’t say anything bad about this forum and 99% of posters. Regardless if you are ‘seen to be’ the unruly kids, manipulative parents, awkward uncle or drunk auntie, argumentative siblings or any other such flavour of the Celtic diaspora.
You lhads and lhassies make me think outside the wee box I find myself operating within for the majority of time. I have been, at times, forced to think on or face uncomfortable topics, but have also been inspired to make sure my voice is heard and to more actively participate in trying to help others, even if my own individual contribution is fleetingly small in the grand scheme of sometimes quite awful things.
Those who say we are not a special family….better review their own place in this fecked up world. You have demonstrated to me inspirational behaviour and actions, kindness, consideration for all others, those things that really we should all aspire to. Never loose that ethos CQN.
I am astounded that PL gets so much attention on a Celtic blog, would hate to read some of the stuff if he was rubbish at his job, I take great comfort that Cqn is a minority view of our club, as for treatment of our fans hopefully Peter has a “must do better” on his report card
RWE
exactly
I know a Senior Police Officer in Dalmarnock.
I’m sure she’ll not lead a too solitary existence:-)
Hail Hail
GERRYFROMTHEBRIG
Are you getting a pass-out from the lights of your life for 10/10?
LENNYBHOY has the details,hope to see you there.
PS-we tend to avoid controversial topics in favour of having a good time,so it’s not a loaded invitation,honest!
ERNIE LYNCH
I can’t comment on East Kilbride,but the influx to the newly-built Pennyburn estate in Kilwinning-Irvine New Town-did not reflect the existing demographic.
NZB exactly
Spellchecker I typed NZB then it changed to RWE…. Must have saved RWE from before apologies for the mixup