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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I remember a couple of years ago we had the name his replacement game, I offered a name and as expected those who blindly follow follow PL and the board did not like my suggestion but the long and short of it was they could not with any decent argument say my choice would not be better because they simply didn’t know, so what’s the point of playing that silly game again, well I’ll tell you, its the only game they know when their comfort blanket is tugged.
Bobby
The groundwork has already been done, definitely out for a couple of hours at least, around 8pm I will kid on am going to the toilet and head home, after about 12 pints I have an instant homing device that triggers without me knowing
Ernie. A lot of folk who came to EK had to have trades in the early days. Calderwood seemed to have been formed from the overspill from Govan in the main How my parents got accepted from a wee flat in the Calton always bemuses me but my Dad was a qualified engineer.
There were always little enclaves and I am not sure if the social engineering was “fixed” in any way. The controls were loosened in the 1970’s and areas like the Greenhills came into being. A better town for it I hasten to add.
Chat about Lawell does get very boring
As does chat about GB
But neither as boring as chat about the dead huns
Wonder which of the 3 have appeared most in lead articles …
Who broke the blog?
Peter Lawell. 8-))
GERRYFAETHEBRIG
I replied to your earlier post and it got lost in the ether!
Suffice to say,opinions don’t matter on a dayoooot,we’re too busy having a good time. And aye,I’ve got the homing instinct too. But it has an override which kicks in in guid company!
See you on the day,bud.
Although I’ll be shouting for Gal my head says KK will win – just looking forward to it being a great game
B.T. 2.43.
Nice one.
Great game In croke park yesterday
Pleasure to be there
Hope today is the same ,don’t mind who wins as long as Galway wallop Kilkenny
All this chat of Peter Lawwell this and Peter Lawwell that – bloody hell.
As a business Celtic have access to some very high powered executives all of whom happen to be fans. They are not always at Celtic Park for home games – though many are – and the board and the senior officers of the club can and do call upon the ears and voices of many senior busness people in terms taking advice and so on.
Whether, the best use is made of these connections is a matter of opinion.
I have said repeatedly that PL is a certain type of CEO and going by certain standards of measure he is a good one at that.
However, in my opinion ( and that ain’t worth a lot, granted ) Celtic PLC needs more than is being offered at the current time at boardroom level.
There is a need for new blood in the boardroom and Celtic could access really serious new business talent with no more than the use of the speed dial.
PL may actually go from being a good CEO in certain respects to a great CEO in all respects if the board were freshened up, new KPI’s and visions set ( some of which would be no more than tweaks of some of the successful strategies followed at the minute, while others would be a whole rethink of certain policies ) and a greater degree of entrepreneurialism introduced into the Corporate vision.
Now, it may be that the major shareholders do not wish to be any more entrepreneurial than they are at present.
It could be that they do not want to take Celtic down a route where they expand on their property, broadcasting, media, telecommunications and tourist potential – trust me all of that exists.
It could be that they do not wish to invest on broadening the Celtic Footballing investment into training schools and camps throughout the world and the potential harnassing of football talent from here there and everywhere with a view to raising our own talent.
I know that they do wish to encompass greater branding, football, social and historical links with the potential fanbase in the USA ( that is why New Balance were such a good fit this time round ) as they do see that as a real area of potential growth — remember my post the other day about UEFA eventually looking at matches between the top clubs in Europe and those from the MLS as they too see America as a growth sector.
As CRC has pointed out, in many ways when it comes to the rolling out of successful accounts then PL is a top jockey – but that is not the only kind of good CEO and it is not the only measure of a CEO.
Harvard University is the leading business school in the world at producing the world’s greatest No 2’s ( no excrement jokes please ) but it does not produce anything like the no of entrepreneurs that it should.
Over the years all the top entrepreneurial companies ( Facebook, Apple, Microsoft etc ) have flocked to appoint Harvard graduates as No 2 to the top dog — because the Harvard guys are just like PL — a safe pair of hands who will have the accounts and the regulations watched like a hawk and who will defend their business to the nth degree!
But will they take those businesses into new markets or employ or develop the very latest technologies or take a risk on a whole new line or business area?
The chances are no they won’t – those decisions are taken by the entrepreneurial types not the accountant and lawyer types.
As for Celtic, I have said before that PL does the job of more than one perosn and that is actually not a good thing at all.
I do not like discussing someone’s employment on an open forum ( or even in private for that matter as it is someone’s job we are talking about ) but in my opinion when he does move along his position would be best filled by the employment of three senior execs – a CEO and two deputies – who could all be paid a six figure salary without costing the company any or much more than it pays just now.
Three heads with differing skills and attributes as opposed to one person who cannot – physically, intellectually and mentally — be the master of all the skills and areas of expertise required to run an ADVANCING football club in Scotland from within an automatically disadvantaged market position in global or European footballing terms.
ST Stivs
You keep calling for a name.
It would be wrong to give you such a name on an open forum, but Celtic can access names aplenty.
However, presuming one would wish to avoid trawling the partners of Price Waterhouse, KPMG, Ernst & Young and so on, and would wish to go down another road entirely — I will give you three sets of initials.
All are Celtic fans, all have held or do hold senior positions in national or world renoun companies in the areas of heavy industry, entertainment and communications, and transport and logistics.
All are based (mostly ) in Scotland. — SD, JG and JR.
I expect none of them to feature on the Celtic Board at any time soon or even ever – but they are there, are leading players in the business field and are Celtic through and through.
Given a day or two I could extend that list to at least a couple of dozen I am sure and there will be others who know far more than me that’s for sure.
Then again these are just the musings of a keyboard halfwit who is trying hard to ignore his children at this point in time.
Wee post for the likes of KEVJ and other Jungle aficionados,myself included.
http://tirnaog09.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/hear-rumble-in-jungle.html?m=1
Just back on CQN. Seems I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t log in. Was getting worried there.
I see Billy Price getting a mention. Didn’t he come late in his career to Celtic? I think he was our left half in the late 50s and early 60s.
BRT&H
I don’t think it’s ST STIVS who is asking for a name,bud. And it matters not who is. It’s a ridiculous question to ask.
As you say,PL has performed well on many parts of his remit. And I’ve always congratulated him for those. IMO,where he went wrong was in not realising that a thriving plant can be pruned to death.
Still 0-0
Celtic Football Club
1m1 minute ago
Celtic Football Club @celticfc
49 @martin_compston claims for a penalty but the ref isn’t interested. Maybe his acting profession didn’t help him there… #JockStein30
BMCUW,
I think I started life in the Jungle about 10 or 15 years before the writer of that article, in the late 50s. It had a different composition then. One of the most regular, every match in fact, whom I know, never wore a scarf, never mind sang a song. I went because that’s where my Dad always stood. He did it because of his eyesight. He stood as near the middle as he could get and he lifted me up on the wall at the back. It wasn’t a dangerous place at all then.
Shameless request if anyone has a decent link to the Hurling….refusing to pay Sky…
Proudbhoy
I posted to you earlier but think it was lost, my question was who is your favourite player you witnessed wearing the hoops and would you have liked to have saw (only 1 pick)
For the the Maestro was and is my favourite, would loved to have seen George Connelly my father thought he was the best he ever saw
Galway get the first point
Celtic Football Club
1m1 minute ago
Celtic Football Club @celticfc
66 We have the first goal at East End Park – and it’s gone to the home side as John Watson slams home to put them 1-0 up. #JockStein30
PARKHEADCUMSALFORD
My Dad and the majority of The Garryowen skwaaad were in The Celtic End.
My early games were either doon the front or standing on empty cans so I could see the action!
Gravitating to The Jungle was a rite of passage back then. Och,I could explain that,but it joooost was!
BMCUW. @3.03
Your last sentence is on the money.
JMCCORMICK
Vipstand.
Gerryfaethebrig. 3.26.
I know you asked proudbhoy but I would like to answer too.
Having watched Celtic since 1970, unquestionably for me Henrik is my favourite player. I would liked to have watched many of the greats before 1970 but as only one pick I will follow your example and pick my dads favourite. Charles Patrick Tully.
GERRYFAETHEBRIG
Yer Dad is a fine judge.
TALLYBHOY and I wax lyrical about his genius on the few occasions we meet up.
JMCCORMICK
Thanks,mate.
JIMMYNOTPAUL
Bring yer Dad on 10/10. My Dad and him can compare notes!
KK 0-02 – Gal 0-04 ten minutes gone
Celtic Football Club
40s40 seconds ago
Celtic Football Club @celticfc
75 The @officialdafc Legends double their lead in spectacular style as Bingham collects a back-heel and strokes the ball into the top corner
Billy Price.
Played left half in a poor early 60s team..Not the best player I ‘ve seen in the Hoops and not the worst either.Think he played in the friendly v Real Madrid .which was to raise money for female refugees..Think he played in the 63 Cup Final ( and the ******* replay.)) 2 games.which still stick in my craw..Current Celtic Board are fabulous in comparison to the Board which ran the Club in those dark days.
My friends in Celtic,
And still the PL debate goes on.
I do not claim to know business, but I do think I know a little about football.
For me we need a CEO who knows about business and football. PL meets that criteria.
All this talk that there are multiple captains of industry who could easily step in and supersede what PL has achieved. Maybe so, but nevertheless its not a given.
Firstly, IMO most CEO’s are paid far too much and they justify this by market forces.
Just because we have a high flying captain of industry with an inflated renumeration package does not mean he / she will be a success in a football environment.
As in all walks of life, not all captains of industry are ” Paragons of virtue” and look at what can happen when a CEO has no direct hands on experience. We are all aware of the spectacular failing of a banking CEO who had no direct experience of banking.
Be aware of the potential consequences of what you wish for.
HH.
BMCUW. 3.39..
I don’t think that’s possible. He’s a long time dead. 22 years. Your post gave me a chuckle.
I should maybe have made that clearer and unlike a lot of lucky posters my relationship with him was not the best. However he did pass on his love of Celtic and nature to me, so that’s 2 things I can thank him for, not including the gift of life.
Looking forward to meeting you on the 10th.
What time do the Polis start on a Monday?
Apologies if already posted – a gathering at the Famine Memorial in support of refugees – fitting it should be there – it’s a horrible sculpture- looks more like thousands to me – seems like a different country now, Ireland
You may need to scroll down to see it –
http://www.rte.ie/news/2015/0905/725881-famine-memorial/
Jimmynotpaul
I think my mum loved Charlie Tully like yourself my father has long since gone but still love thinking back and the stuff he told me, I wish they were all still with us he always maintained that mob fae Govan were cheats, cheats then, cheats now and probably cheats in their next creation
JIMMYNOTPAUL
I’m so sorry to hear that,mate. I’m just a sad wee person who still regards his Dad as his hero,and is fortunate enough that he is still around.
And he disnae half love Charles Patrick!
Bobby
I love it when you post about your dad and will be delighted to buy him a pint on the 10/10, although I think BT takes precedence imaging your dad playing for Celtic, although my dad told me he should have adorned the hoops (not quite the same)?
Celtic Football Club
5m5 minutes ago
Celtic Football Club @celticfc
FT at East End Park and the spoils on the day go to the @officialdafc Legends who win 2-0. #JockStein30