Private Eye on Mr Whyte - "an ideal saviour for Rangers"

[BrahimHemdani 1]

The following is from this weeks edition of Private Eye, published tomorrow:

 

BUSINESS NEWS SECTION

 

PLANET FOOTBALL

 

RANGERS

 

The article begins with an explanation of the the reasons for Rangers tax problems which they estimate at �£50 million including interest and penalties should Rangers lose the case. the article continues:

 

Craig Whyte, who is 40 and lives in a Scottish castle, is a man of mystery for someone to whom others seems keen to confer billionaire status. He is a director of Pritchard Stockbrokers and a shareholder in the AIM-listed Merchant House corporate finance group. They are authorised by the FSA. Whyte is not.

 

 

 

He was a director of LM Logistics Group, which was controlled by Merchant Corporate Recovery, where he is still a director, and Merchant House group is an investor. Warehousing group LM collapsed into administration in August last year. Whyte had resigned in March. The deficiency for creditors was �£3.4m, threatening to wipe out Merchant Corporate Recoveryâ��s investment and, more importantly, a �£661,000 loan.

 

 

 

As a result of LMââ?¬â?¢s problems the January 2010 accounts for Merchant Corporate Recovery ââ?¬â?? filed late on 31 March this year ââ?¬â?? were qualified by the auditors Hazlewoods. The auditors disagreed about the accounting treatment of the companies in which it had invested, such as LM. Whyte said to include them would be misleading; Hazlewoods said that was required by both the Companies Act and accounting standards.

 

 

 

Hazelwoods stated: ââ?¬Å?In our opinion due solely to the non-inclusion of the controlled investee companies... the financial statements do not give a true and fair view of the state of the companyââ?¬â?¢s affairs... have not been properly prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006ââ?¬Â.

 

 

 

Hazlewoods also raised an ââ?¬Å?emphasis of matterââ?¬Â issue over the ââ?¬Å?going concernââ?¬Â basis upon which the 2009 accounts, filed only last February, for another investment, coach company Countryliner Group, had been prepared. Since the balance sheet date, one subsidiary had done a creditorsââ?¬â?¢ voluntary arrangement and another had collapsed into liquidation.

 

 

 

The accounts for Tixway UK are overdue from last October and it faces a proposal to be struck off, as do two other Whyte companies; Merchant Interactive and Semfill, from which he resigned last year.

 

 

 

Otherwise, Whyte seems an ideal saviour for Rangers whom Sir David Murray, HMRC and the fans can clearly rely.

[craig 5,195]

Nice sarcastic ending to the article.

[Stimpy 0]

Smells of gobblegiver.

[ian1964 10,415]

More shite from the desperate BHEASTS.

 

Whyte keeps his cards very close to his chest,so much so that nobody knows what he is worth I would imagine.

[Bluedell 5,329]

And so it starts. What a dreadful article.

 

He is a director of Pritchard Stockbrokers

 

No he is not.

 

They are authorised by the FSA. Whyte is not

 

So what? Why does Whyte require to be authorised by the FSA?

 

He was a director of LM Logistics Group, which was controlled by Merchant Corporate Recovery, where he is still a director, and Merchant House group is an investor. Warehousing group LM collapsed into administration in August last year. Whyte had resigned in March. The deficiency for creditors was �£3.4m, threatening to wipe out Merchant Corporate Recoveryâ��s investment and, more importantly, a �£661,000 loan.

 

Not sure what the story is here but it doesn't seem as straightforward as they are trying to make out. LM Logistics Group was put into administration 10 months after it was set up. Whyte was a director for just over 3 months. Merchant Corporate Recovery made a profit of �£825K, and has security over the assets of LM Logistics and therefore MCR believe that they will recoup their �£230K investment. The accounts of MCR don't show the loan of �£661K, so I'm not sure if it is another inaccurate fact or of it was amde after MCR's year-end, but I would have thought that the auditors would have required mention of it, wich they did not.

 

 

The accounts for Tixway UK are overdue from last October and it faces a proposal to be struck off, as do two other Whyte companies; Merchant Interactive and Semfill, from which he resigned last year.

 

I don't see the problem here. Companies that are no longer required get struck off all the time.

 

 

I've got no idea whether Whyte is kosher or not, but I'm certainly no clearer after this mud-racking article.

[Guest BRIANMC1]

I can't buy this 'he is skint' shyte!!!

 

Why on Earth would he be buying Rangers if he did not have the money (or the backing ) from somewhere.

 

You wouldn't buy Rangers to make money.

[BrahimHemdani 1]

I've got no idea whether Whyte is kosher or not, but I'm certainly no clearer after this mud-racking article.

 

But wouldn't you be concerned about the auditors qualifying the accounts of one of his companies and the questions about the going concern basis of another?

 

Wouldn't it cause you to worry about any other skeletons he might have in his cupboards?

[Bluedell 5,329]

But wouldn't you be concerned about the auditors qualifying the accounts of one of his companies and the questions about the going concern basis of another?

 

Wouldn't it cause you to worry about any other skeletons he might have in his cupboards?

 

You have to take these things in context. The correct context hasn't been given in this article.

 

The auditor's qualification is because they didn't consolidate their investments. Given the nature of their business I can see the logic in the director's argument on this. Having your accounts qualified isn't the end of the world. It depends on who is using them. If it is only the directors and shareholders and they are happy with the accounting treatment then what's the harm?

 

As for the going concern issue, they invest in companies with problems. High risk, high return, I guess.

 

Countryliner seem to have had debts written off and repaid the bank the sums due and have returned to profitability. I don't see that mentioned in the article.

 

I'm more concerned the stories about whyte having to go round the HNW fans to get the cash to complete the deal than anything in this article.

 

He may have skeletons, probably does, but the issues raised here just don't seem to be that major, although I have spent limited time looking into it.

[BrahimHemdani 1]

I'm more concerned the stories about whyte having to go round the HNW fans to get the cash to complete the deal than anything in this article.

 

 

My understanding is that the night he was pictured sitting next to a certain night club owner, name of Mortimer, said Mortimer arranged a meet with other Chairman's Club members and the collective view was that they were not impressed. This is only rumour although it came from a good source, I don't know anyone who was at the meeting, perhaps someone here does.

 

I think it is much more likely that some of the HNW's will be looking at picking up the Club for peanuts if it goes into administration than giving Whyte a helping hand to do the deal now and knowing that is why he's doing his damdest to get it sooner rather than later.

 

I have not heard anyone suggest that Whyte has �£20m+ in cash so he has to borrow it against whatever assets he has, effectively Rangers end up in debt to him or his bankers (who are they?) and he or they do a debt for equity swap if the Club goes into administration.

[Guest Dutchy]

Satire is a really funny form of comedy as you can say what you want and there's no compuction for any of it to be true, as it's all meant to be taken as a laugh.

 

I was laughing at all that, as if he didn't have an idea of what he was doing, or Rangers and the bank, who have accepted his deal offer didn't know anything. It truley is hilarious.

 

I don't know if Craig Whyte would be interested in suing this magazine. Many others have and succeded, but it's better to just laugh at the humour involved in this style of writing.

 

:smile: