Copied this statement from chairman Ken Anderson on the Bolton Wanderers site. Big mess.
I would like to update everyone on the potential takeover but unfortunately confidentiality clauses prevent me from doing so. However, I can confirm that discussions are ongoing with several parties and I am hopeful that completion will happen this week.
Obviously, the delay is very disappointing but to be honest l am not surprised as it seems a regular event with takeovers these days. I am sure that you have all heard of similar situations for example at Newcastle where at least two potential takeovers with two different highly respected individuals involved have not been able to complete a deal so far.
Similar situations have occurred at Hull and Charlton and several other clubs. I would like to be able to give you more information as to why the transaction was delayed, but unfortunately, as l am sure you will appreciate, I am restricted by NDA and confidentiality clauses. It is important however to appreciate that these transactions take time as was clearly seen with the recent Wigan takeover.
A great deal has and no doubt and will continue to be written and said about my ownership and time at the club, so I thought it would be a good time to look back and also clarify some of the misapprehensions.
When l was first asked to assist, the club was on the brink of going into administration or even worse liquidation and my involvement was to be short term to try to arrange some investment or short term bridging finance.
Prior to my involvement, to the best of my knowledge and belief, Trevor Birch had already sold off the training ground at Euxton to Wigan Athletic, the North Stand offices and several of the car parks to Michael James (Prescott Business Parks) for circa £12m. At the same time, a charge over the hotel was also given to Michael James Holdings together with a first charge over part of the training ground to Brett Warburton creating nearly £9m of new secured debt. Unfortunately, all these funds totalling circa £21m had been utilised before my involvement.
Dean Holdsworth and his associate Michael Collins had taken out a £5m loan from BluMarble through Sportshield with debentures and also gave charges effectively over everything the club and its associated businesses still owned. Although it has to be said that the club only actually received £4m of the £5m. Subsequent events and what happened to both of them and the loan have already been well publicised.
It was the legacy of the above debts and loans, as well as some non-commercial and dubious agreements with numerous agents, suppliers, caterers, professionals and other contractors as well as a rates burden of at least treble what it should have been, based on what the other local football clubs and hotels have paid and which did not make any commercial sense.
I accept that the council is not responsible for the legislation and have been very supportive, but all of this has effectively financially hampered the club during the entire time l have been involved. The amounts involved have cost the club several millions of pounds to date.
During my ownership we have done our best to substantially reduce costs and increase revenues and now have one of the lowest debts and operating costs in the Championship. When you consider that the debts when I first arrived were close to a quarter of a billion pounds it just goes to show how much has been achieved. Indeed, I am pleased to say that the 2018 accounts will show a small profit, which I understand is the first time this has happened since the 2006 accounts were published.
However, despite all of this good work, the club is still not self-sufficient and costs continue to exceed income, which has made operating the club and hotel extremely difficult. Unfortunately, every month continues to be a financial challenge. I fully appreciate how frustrating this is for all the staff at the club and hotel and of course the supporters, but I can assure you that I have done my utmost to try and address the ongoing problem by looking for new investment.
For the record, the sale price being quoted is very wide of the mark. Indeed, the proposals that I have had would effectively recoup what I paid for my shares, so no huge profit as is constantly stated in the media and social media.
Whilst, l am the first to admit that the way l have had to operate the club and its associated businesses is far from perfect and open to criticism, l do believe that there was little or no alternative if the club was to survive both on and off the field until any new investment could be sourced. I can assure you that it had nothing to do with brinksmanship, it was simply to help the club to survive.
Despite all of the above, I am proud of what has been achieved during the last three years, be it the excellent training facilities with the new dome that was achieved with the help and support of the Community Trust and Development Association, the Academy achieving Category 2 status, and the club earning promotion from League One at the first attempt during an embargo that was also a legacy of the last regime.
It is also a great achievement that we have been able to attract the Rugby League semi-finals for a second year running and also been selected as one of the venues for the 2021 Rugby League World Cup as well as hosting music concerts, numerous conferences and many other events including the IberCup to the Stadium and Hotel.
I am also proud to say that there were not the redundancies and mass staff walkouts that the usual doom and gloom mongers predicted. Actually, very few people have left during my ownership.
It has been well publicised about my ongoing battles with some of the media, social media forums and pundits, but I have no regrets on that front whatsoever. I will always defend the people around me when they are unfairly criticised and as I have stated previously the actions that I took were simply because a number of the statements made were and continue to be factually incorrect and there were unjustified criticisms of the team management and academy. I have no problems with opinions as that’s what makes football fascinating, but factually incorrect statements about the club or my staff I will not accept.
Unfortunately, several people seem to want to give the indication that they know what’s going on at the club, when in reality they know very little if anything and often incorrectly speculate or worse still, in some cases create stories such as the Turkish buyer and the North West consortium backed by Russian money and the latest one from Bahrain. I have had no contact whatsoever with any of them.
A number of the sensational headline reports in the local media these last few days are exactly that and again wide of the mark and factually incorrect in most cases. I suppose it helps sell newspapers and keeps journalists in the limelight. As regards the letters being printed, I have no problem with these, as I fully understand the sentiments being expressed. Even if some of the comments are not accurate, I put this down to them expressing what they have read or heard.
Indeed, I do believe that the media and social media have played a major part in influencing and promoting the recent fan protests, which together with the recent vile, abusive and threatening comments posted on social media towards me and my family and then in January, the police advising me that it might not be safe for us to attend home or away matches have made me reappraise whether for the sake of my family and our safety I should continue to be involved with the Club.
Despite all of this, I have decided to reinstate all media privileges with immediate effect.
I have previously commented on the substantial additional costs the club incurred because of the protests and now I understand that there will be another protest before the Millwall match, which will mean incurring additional policing costs which as everyone knows the club can well do without.
I can now understand why Ed Davies decided to stop financially supporting the businesses back in 2015 after losing circa £200m. I had to put a further £800,000 in to pay the salaries in January as I have done on many other occasions.
In the original post about this, back on p 1550, its says that new on takeover will be coming from various outlets (not including VOTV), so we've seen The Standard story, what else, when, and from where is this going to be released @Airman Brown ?
I’ll have a go at Banker Bingo. What about the ex Barclays boss Bob Diamond. He was involved in the Premier Leage Barclays sponsorship and was a Chelsea season ticket holder.
Is that right about Jim White texting RD asking if there has been a fresh, £30m bid, and RD coming back with "maybe but we get bids regularly"? I just see it on Facebook
Is that right about Jim White texting RD asking if there has been a fresh, £30m bid, and RD coming back with "maybe but we get bids regularly"? I just see it on Facebook
Maybe Roland will sell just to stop Jim White texting him every time there’s a new rumor
i'm assuming this is effectively a £37m bid as the directors haven't been approached to settle within the past year or Mr Smith would have no doubt advised us. Just that RD will only get £30m.
Comments
There's probably a lot of Bull involved with it, in all honesty !
https://home.barclays/who-we-are/structure-and-leadership/leadership/mike-ashley/
Come on lad, now is your moment
1556 - Thomas Cranmer was burnt at the stake for treason & heresy.