Zappa 0 Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 It's a strange one, mate. Even D&P were praising TBK!! Something that's been bugging me (playing on my mind), is were Paul Murray & TBK actually wanting to get a CVA approved before the result of the big tax case? And if so, why? 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
caseyjones 0 Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-17737129 Show us the Singaporean dollars, then. That seems to be the message from the Blue Knights consortium, as it pulls back from its bid to take over Rangers. It's not pulling out. It's still willing to return to the table. But despite being part of the Knights consortium, Ticketus has also been consorting with the rival bid from Bill Ng. So Paul Murray has thrown down a gauntlet to Ticketus, to the administrators and to the Singaporean who claims to have long been a fan of the Glasgow team; let's see the colour of your money. And while you're at it, let's see how the fans react. Having lost some of its dramatic edge and tension of late, the Monday evening statements from the football club's administrators and from the consortium led by former director Murray has injected quite a few plot twists all at once. Confused and dazed Let's try unpicking them. For a start, all the talk last week about the SPL's proposed penalties to Rangers if it goes into liquidation forcing administrators Duff & Phelps to put the process on hold... remember that? Well, it now looks to have been a tad misleading. It now seems the delay had more to do with brinksmanship between the Blue Knights and the administrators. We now know the administrators were looking for a non-refundable deposit if they were going to declare Blue Knights as preferred bidders, which would give them exclusive access to the books, and put them in the same room as the creditors. They disagreed about the size of that down-payment, though apparently not over the principle of it. After some negotiation the Blue Knights now say they had reached a broad understanding. Duff & Phelps say no agreement had been reached. Maybe they're both right. You'd have to excuse them for being a bit confused and possibly dazed by all this. That's particularly after the Blue Knights consortium found out that one part of the consortium, Ticketus, was also talking to Mr Ng. The Whyte stuff This isn't entirely surprising. As I reported many weeks ago, Ticketus, the London-based finance house, wants to protect the £24m it forwarded to Craig Whyte in exchange for three seasons of season ticket sales. It made it known that it was open to talks with any or all bidders. It said as much before the announcement that it was part of the Blue Knights consortium. And afterwards, it continued to say it to anyone who asked. The finance company never said it was in an exclusive offer alongside Paul Murray, in the Blue Knights deal backed by supporters' organisations. Instead, Ticketus wanted to be sure that whoever bought the club would respect the deal it struck with Craig Whyte to pay it the proceeds of those season ticket sales. If they don't, Ticketus left little doubt that it was threatening to tie them up in court, making it difficult to secure funding from elsewhere. And it would also have to go after Craig Whyte's "personal and corporate guarantees" for £27.5m, which the majority shareholder says he signed with the company in order to get the funding for his takeover. You may remember that was from Whyte's weirdly rambling statement, in which he added that none of those guarantees were against Rangers' assets. It would be a brave forensic accountant who went after those guarantees. So better for Ticketus to stick close to Ibrox and its new owners, if at all possible. The Knight stuff If we're to assume that Bill Ng has tabled the biggest offer, and we're now told it's by a "substantially better" margin, the challenge now is for Ticketus to tie up the deal it needs with the Singaporean and his other investors, and for Duff & Phelps to be satisfied the funds are actually available (you can't be too sure with people buying Rangers.) And the preferred bidder has yet to find out how much the club owes HM Revenue and Customs (the ruling on the big tax bill still hasn't been handed down) and how much of a loss the tax authority and other creditors are willing to accept. If Mr Ng has been that big a Rangers fan down the years, he'll surely be well aware what he's got himself into... won't he? But what if the Ng offer doesn't work out? What if he can't get a Company Voluntary Agreement with creditors, which is what the Blue Knights hint at being his difficulty. They're saying the Knights still offer the best chance of securing a deal on debt. If so, will the Blue Knights be able to put behind them the Ticketus manoeuvre to seek out a better offer from Mr Ng? It might look to some like bad faith. And yet the Knights' Monday night statement suggests the consortium could put its offer, Ticketus and all, back on the table. Irrelevance? Oh yes, and then there's Craig Whyte. An irrelevance? So say Duff & Phelps. Yet he's still sitting on 85% of the club's shares. Not worth much, admittedly, but if Rangers is to avoid liquidation, that makes it look like he's still a player to be reckoned with. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forlanssister 3,050 Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 A broken leg on the Knights' round table http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-17737129 Above the Beebs usual quality of fayre but then it's not from their sports department! 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim White 0 Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 (edited) The Blue Knights are to take a step back from the bidding process, leaving a Singapore-based group in pole position to buy Rangers. Read full article... Edited April 16, 2012 by Zappa 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bears 0 Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 This is refreshing news to wake up to. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frankie 8,150 Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 As I've been saying for the last week or so, I don't think preferred bidder status is that big a deal actually. In many ways it's a risk to pay £500K when there are still a variety of unknowns which can and will contribute. It's certainly not game over for TBK and this will give them a chance to sit back and revisit the parts of their bid which could be causing them problems. As for Ng et al, hopefully this will now give them to opportunity to release more info about them and their plans. Our support are incredible and if they really recognise that, then they'll be keen to expand upon our involvement for the future. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GovanAllan 0 Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 Go away and actually do some work last night and miss it all, at least things are moving in the right direction for once long may it continue. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chilledbear 16 Posted April 17, 2012 Author Share Posted April 17, 2012 Ng still to convince me. Until they reveal who will be running Rangers day to day, the 'Rangers Supporting' business men. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CumbernauldGers 0 Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 CG & FS, please refrain. I know everyone has their preference, and I myself have been more impressed with Ng (for no reason other than the noises coming out of them left me feeling more comfortable), but I struggle to see how anyone can be "glad" TBK's are out of it when we still know so little of the other bids. What if Bill Ng is the Singaporean Craig Whyte ? Would we all be so happy to see the back of TBK's then ? I doubt it. I want only ONE thing - the best solution and best buyer for RANGERS. And, right now, we still have no idea who that is, so it is premature IMHO for us to be glad to see the back of anyone, bar Craig Whyte of course The only thing we know mate is it is better to have TBK out the way, they had no money. All they had to back up there deal was were Rangers men. They wanted the club for nothing and tried and failed to use the supporters groups to push it through. We all want the best bid to win, at the moment it looks like there is only 1 real bid anyway so we will just have to wait and see. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bears 0 Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 http://www.todayonline.com/Sports/EDC120417-0000123/Bill-Ngs-consortium-favourites-to-clinch-Rangers-deal From a credible Singapore newspaper 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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