Craig Whyte laid out Rangers finances in a statement today, released in response to the Daily Record’s series of articles on the club this morning. Whyte explained Rangers operating costs are around £45m while their income is approximately £35m, adding that the club needs to “live within its means”.
He confirmed the central allegation from the Record, that Rangers have securitised income from future season ticket sales in order to provide money for the club to pay its current costs, while denying they owe £5m VAT.
I have refreshed the page several times since an initially read and see no attempt to address the glaring question, if Rangers are spending tomorrow’s income today, what happens tomorrow? It beggars belief that someone thought it was a good idea to confirm a fact like without addressing the enormous question now hanging over the club.
Maybe an octopus ate Craig’s homework.
I’ve no idea how much money Rangers have in the bank right now, at this time on transfer deadline day, no one even seems to know if they have sold prize-asset, Jelavic, to Everton, but no matter how much of the securitised income remains, if this is not a dead parrot, it’s in severely poor health.
More power to you, Craig. I’ll not have a word said against you.
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Mort says:
1 February, 2012 at 10:31
A long time ago my parents were involved in buying a house where the builder wanted payment in cash. This meant that my parent mortgage company had to advance the money before the house was secured. The basis of the loan was that if the house sale did fall through the charge to my parents was equivalent to stupid interest. I suspect Craig Whyte was able to do something similar.
QuadBhoy & Mort – Ticketus are a legitimate and well respected company. They are also professional lenders. They would not loan £24m without security, especially against a non fixed income stream. What is the security? Is it a Rangers asset? If it is how was Whyte allowed to borrow against assets that he didn’t own until a full calendar month later. Why did he borrow a full calendar month prior if it was for “working capital”?
I know that there is no hun comparison to, Mr Willie Wilson but, the huns are going to have to find one although, it might be too late now ?
Mr Willie Wilson is of course, the ghuy who started-up the, Save Our Celt’s campaign that, allowed the Celtic support to have an, independant voice from the bought off CSA of that time 1990.
Shortly after, SOC’s, the Celt’s For Change group appeared and, from that moment on…the board of, Kellys & Whites had nowhere left to hide.
Somehow, the impression I get is that, historically the huns support have been conditioned to getting it all there own way that, there is probably an overwhelming, can’t be ersed minset amongst the hun support. Always waiting for someone else to, lift and lay them! IMO!
Hail! Hail!
KJamBhoy – I can see no option other than liquidation now…
Mort
Reading between the lines, my speculation is that the money was being held in escrow by a third party (Collyer Bristow). There would be a contract around the escrow arrangement such that if the deal fell through, the moneys would be returned to Ticketus. Not an uncommon vehicle for transactions such as this.
When the takeover was complete, the funds would have been released from escrow to Wavetower.
The AJ interview contained all sorts of weird tidbits.
1) HMRC are looking into the sale to CW and AJ got the details from them. Should CW be paying tax on the purchase of Rangers?
2) Murray International did the due diligence on CW..checking he had the cash and then passed on the OK to Rangers. Aren’t MI negligent?
3) CW had the money secured on Rangers before he bought the club. If it wasn’t needed to buy the club why didn’t Ticketus just wait till after he bought the club and then forward it to him?
Awe Naw,
I think I read, either here or next door in the RTC office, that Sticket2us placed the cash in a law firm’s account (Bristow Colyer?), until such time as the Fakeover was completed.
If the deal didn’t go through, then the money reverted to the company.
QuadBhoy / Mort,
That is exactly what has happened IMHO.
Ticketus have come to an agreement with the MBB that if / when he buys the club it will be bouth with an agreement already in place for x amount of Season tickets as collateral over 4 years (or some messy dealy structure close to this).
To enable the MBB to buy the club he must first prove he has the funds and Ticketus have set up the £18m required in a Bank account which they have authorisation over. Bank statement printed by Agent / Solicitor acting for Ticketus & MBB jointly is shown to the Old RFC board and Lloyds.
Deal signed, Ticketus Rankers deal presigned (basically) and on we go.
Essentially, The MBB and his side kick Ellis have convinced Ticketus of their Business Plan and Ticketus have become Financial Investors in this sorry mess.
They will not be doing this without risks but you can bet they have put a fair old return for them selves as interest as would most lenders.
All speculation but based on what I can see at present, Ticketus and HMRC will need to start acting as Lloyds did for the few years previous and basically set up a Rankers Board of thier own if they want money back on this………..
Or Tescos Ibrox and Murray park Housing Development are not far away (again all My opinion)
Mucker
Rogue Leader -the security must be the stadium -/+ Murray Park
THere’s nothing else that can cover the loan, not even future sales of ‘Cooking with Kirk Broadfoot’.
RogueLeader
The timing of the pertinent facts coming out by those in the supposed know is the crucial matter here.
The due diligence brigade i.e Johnstone, Mc Lelland, Murray, Grieg all have had ample time to show all this before now.
Keep an eye on him was all that AJ said.
Murray and the bank accepted this sale. There was a bit of moaning at the time but nobody could stand in Murray and the banks way
The crux of the matter is two things
1) did he do it and to what extent ?
2) How much vat needs paid on that ?
The issue here is why did Murray and the Bank accept this sale knowing full well the terms of the deal and conceal the details from the old regime ?
The second issue is why are we talking about it now and not last summer ?
The answer is easy cause Craig Whyte´s patsy role would be revealed.
Everything that is being said and done just now is been done to protect Murray and his former board (Johnson, Murray, Mc lelland, Grieg) …. and gues who is pointing the finger at Craig Whyte ?
HAil Hail
Mort says:
1 February, 2012 at 09:39
Sure Jackie’s OK now.
he even plays golf at the K club.
PS Where’s my copy of DR?
S
Gordon_J @ 10.30
Now that the Alien versus Predator franchise seems to be finished, your scenario could be just the thing to replace it.
They would not loan £24m without security, especially against a non fixed income stream.
Not suggesting they would – but they might allow a solicitor to hold it for them securely until a contract with an asset was agreed. Whyte could then show this statement as proof of means.
What is the security? Is it a Rangers asset?
Most likely, but we’d just be guessing – they can’t own too much worth enough to cover that amount though? Ibrox or Murray Park? I guess we wont know if/what Tickitus have as security until they need to declare it.
If it is how was Whyte allowed to borrow against assets that he didn’t own until a full calendar month later.
See above – he perhaps didnt get the cash until he signed the contract – it only took £1 to buy and the bank debt could have been paid off using a timetable agreed at point of purchase – just long enough to sign over an asset to release the funds held by his solicitor.
Why did he borrow a full calendar month prior if it was for “working capital”?
Thats the million, sorry billion dollar question.
QB
Abmucker 10.44
So did this whole cunning plan fall apart simply because Rangers couldn’t get past Malmo?
It seems like the MBB would have struggled to get out of these debts with or without Champs League cash.
Is it not a bit odd for HMRC to be discussing an investigation with a third party?
And for the third party to then go and discuss the investigation with a newspaper?
A hun was saying at work this morning that – Traynor in the DR said sumfin about, £10 million short/missing per year ?mmm
I keep going back to it but, I still think, like Speirs alluded to the other night on Clyde, the government will bail the huns out!
Hail! Hail!
Awe_Naw – the question we will never have an answer to is….did Lloyds / Murray know that Ticketus were providing the funds to allow Whyte to pass the “I have the dosh guvnor” test?
Not that it matters now as IMO they are royally, and completly, gubbed and there is not a sodding thing any of the fans can do about it. Not a thing.
In fact Whyte could easily turn around and say. Yes I borrowed that £24.4m and paid it to myself as wages. Roon ye. End of story, he owns 85%.
RogueLeader says:
1 February, 2012 at 10:42
Me too, liquidation.
Also when Ticketus lent the money can they stipulate they are a secured creditor in the case of any insolvency event?
ernie lynch
To cut a long story short….
I think the secret handshake will pull the huns out of their slimy-pit!
Hail! Hail!
The Full Version
HMRC A tribute to the Village Idiots
Talking about the football we simply must win the SPL we cannot allow the bankrupt poundland mob to win it or we will never hear the end of it.I believe our very large squad is good enough to win the league.However,I believe the attitude has to be right as the orcs will be see this as a battle that they must win its going to be a very interesting second half of the season.H.H.
KevJungle
Which government will bail them out? The Scottish government? With an independence referendum coming up they are going to have to do some pretty intensive opinion polling before they work out which section of the population they can afford to alienate.
They will do anything before they are forced to make such a decision, its politically toxic. The SFA/SPL?- that’s the question.
new article posted.
thomthethim says:
1 February, 2012 at 10:44
That does not prove that he used that money to buy the huns. He is already on record as disputing that.
If he and Ellis have another source of money they could/should have used that to avoid paying VAT.
The only game that is being played here is Public relations.
The entire skirmish is about perception of the public in who actually slit hun throat. Who was responsible .. even if it just a case of diminishing that responsibility
The old regime remain in denial about their role in that and when the tax case judgement finally arrives and Rangers are still a breathing entity then Craig Whyte will have flummoxed them all. They never thought it possible.
All of them and I include Bain, Smith wanted the hun dead before the tax case to save their bosses bacon.
Ally was either not in on it or was playing stupid … the contract that Bain gave him was more than worth it.
Hail HAil
Theres one very major problem if Ibrox is sold and turned into a Tesco, that everybody is overlooking!!!
Where the hell do the Rugby 7s get played when Glasgow hosts the Commonwealth Games???????
:-)
JohnnyClash
Aye,the phone call from the bhoy talking about Celtic buying the huns was funny but what a pathetic reply from King about Celtic not having won the league for 3 seasons,its a shame the caller never reminded Darryl that Walter Smith never bombs,bullets n death threats to put up with or that Celtic never spent nowhere near the money they did.
Dundee Utd still available 7/1,8/1 for Sunday bhoys.
KevJungle says:
1 February, 2012 at 10:48
‘I keep going back to it but, I still think, like Speirs alluded to the other night on Clyde, the government will bail the huns out!’
Spiers is a life long hun who depends for his livliehood on the huns being in existence.
From that perspective he, perhaps understandably, overestimates the huns importance in the overall scheme of things.
They ain’t THAT important.
No government is going to bail them out.
They’ll be liquidated and a phoenix huns will be set up. That’s when the real fight starts.
KevJungle says:
1 February, 2012 at 10:48
Spiers didn’t allude to it he was nearly greeting, shurley shumbody shumwhere is gonny save us.. typical hun apologist, they kacked in their own pants and their looking for somebody to wipe their backsides.
What earthly justification would the gov’t have for saving the huns, didn’t see them trying to save Newcastle or Leeds..????
SP
KevJungle 10.48
How do the Government bail them out though?
This isn’t a pillar bank filled with peoples savings which would cause untold misery if allowed to fail.
It’s a pathetic sectarian cesspool run by egomaniacs and shady tax dodgers (depending on who you blame more).
Where would they have the moral authority to save a company who has cheated the tax man of 49 million pounds?
What sort of message would it send to the rest of the football and business community in Scotland or the wider UK?
And if they are saved it will surely be the greatest opportunity for Celtic to go to UEFA and say “LET US GET OUT OF SCOTLAND!! a club which has cheated their way to titles and gone bust because of it, has just been saved by the government!! There is no level playing field in the SPL we want out of here now!!”
I’d like to hear UEFA’s counter argument to that!
Thanks all for informative answers.
The answer will presumably be in the contract and unless Rangers default on payment we’ll probably never know.
If they do default on payment, the terms of the contract will be vitally important as I am sure Rangers will have lawyers (if they can afford any!!!) going through it with a fine tooth comb to see if there is any way they can get out of it. As Ticketus seem to be quite a large organisation with experience in this, its unlikely they will have left anything to chance.
Mort
I think the bank were the real drivers in all of this. They wanted their money and, probably correctly from their point of view, didn’t give a damn who or where it came from. Murray couldn’t come up with it so he was told to find someone, anyone, else who could.
I’m not altogether certain I follow all of the financial arrangements that make up this particular house of cards. But I know enough to see that the whole damn thing is going to blow away and pretty soon too.
Plan A was Champions League qualification. That would give enough short term cash to get through to the end of the tax case. Plan B was Europa League qualification. Less income but probably still OK. And plan C? Well, surely Ally couldn’t screw up that badly could he. Plan C? There was no plan C.
Lads I asked this ? before and James Forrest replied with it’s the club that need to do something.
So I will ask again, what are we going to do about it if they try to ease a newco back into the SPL?
Cmon guys to much talk and no plans.
ernie lynch – not if that 3rd party was felt to have information relevant to the investigation. If the 3rd party wasn’t interviewed under caution, or made to sign any confidentiality agreements, he is free to discuss anything that was discussed with him.
We can change Scottish football for good if we take the right steps.
Cavansam,
Gsus now you want me to understand how they convinced Ticketus to go along with this cunning plan :-)
Yip, I firmly beleive he hoped to sell a big asset in the summer (say £9m for Jelavic HAHAHAHA) and also get CL money coming in (EL at best) it was the only way he was going to keep the Orcs happy (if that’s possible).
Hey if I wanted to bring down the Huns, I would ask David Murray, he was doing a grand job all on his own.
The MBB has helped things along no doubt. I’m sitting here wondering how I can get in on the action and make some money out of them collapsing :-)
I would then Invest that money into the Thai Tims and the Vanessa Riddle appeal so that we could all be happy that the Huns had played their part.
Mucker
As RFC lurch deeper and deeper into the biggest crisis in Scottish football history, there is one thing I just cant get my head around. Whether the debt is going to be 20, 30, 40 or even 70 million, why are there no big hitters out there willing to club together and save the ‘institution’ they love. Lets be honest, any ordinary punter’s perception of what £70 million means is too scary to imagine. But in the world of high finance its a relatively small ammount. I know any figure mentioned can only be evaluated generally in relation to turnover/profit/potential etc and thats the crux of the issue. However, why is too inconcievable for a group to come together and ‘chip in’ 10 mill each?
Before anyone thinks I’m on a hun sympathy kick here, well I’m trying to think what our club/supporters would do in the exact same position. Maybe I’m being a bit over romatic here, but I’d say there’s definitely a major difference in the ethos and reputation of the clubs. The journalist Roddy Forsyth (Rangers fan with Celtic supporting sons) said about 4 years ago that [paraphrase] ‘When you think of CFC you see a world wide Scottish/Irish diaspora of friendly fans wearing kilts and shamrocks, a club formed to feed the poor, a club who conquered Europe playing scintillating football’…’When you think of RFC you think of a huge institution blighted by sectarian policy and troublesome fans, and Ulster Unionism’.
I would suggest that the answer to my question lies within that statement. I can imagine the likes of Willie Haughey bailing us out just as he nearly did before Fergus. I can see the Irish Mafia stepping in. There are surely some very rich Irish/Scottish Americans who would grasp the opportunity to rebuild us. Whats in it for these people? Apart from a love of the club and a potential business opportunity, the kudos gained from such a gesture, helping, saving and attaching themselves to this famous club would be the most appealing aspect, in my opinion. Celtic’s name world wide is in a different league to Rangers. We all know the historical reasons, but for me the events of Manchester May 2008, were truly awful, the worst possible PR any football club could ever have, and to an extent this is one rock they are perishing on.
I can just see Theo Paphitis or Duncan Bannatyne now….’You know I’m tempted, really tempted, but for that last reason, I’m sorry to say I cant invest, so…I’M OUT!
HH
Guys, I’ve got some spare, long term, season tickets going……very good price!
Anyone interested???
OK, I made that bit up about them being long term but I will do you a good deal – My word is my bond, an’ all that!