More must read articles RE: McColl bid

[Frankie 8,151]

...from Richard Wilson:

 

Both men had already lost out to Charles Green, when his Sevco consortium made an £8.5m bid last month. Park had been one of the Blue Knights, the consortium led by former Ibrox director Paul Murray, and McColl had been supporting his own consortium. Their frustration was sharply felt, since both knew that Green was struggling to pull the money together to fund his bid.

 

There was desperation in Green's frantic attempts to court Scottish businessmen for money, and even as late as Monday he was seeking £1.8m. Sevco had briefly managed to raise £8m, until a major blue-chip investor did due diligence on Green's other backers and decided to pull out last weekend, taking his £4m pledge with him. By that stage, Park and McColl were considering their own plans.

 

Phone calls grew more earnest 10 days ago. Park was still in discussions with various members of the Blue Knights and Brian Kennedy, while McColl was monitoring events closely. All had received legal advice that Green's agreement with Duff & Phelps was binding, so that, even if the Company Voluntary Arrangement proposal failed, there was no way to prevent him buying the business and the assets for £5.5m. But they also knew he was struggling to get the funds.

 

Park, McColl and others were prepared to present an alternative offer, and McColl brought with him the trump card. Despite having been courted by all of the various bidders for the club since last February, Walter Smith had already agreed to support McColl's group.

 

Fans were growing increasingly wary of Green, whose rhetoric is colourful but lacks substance â?? he has variously talked of raising £30m, and signing Rino Gattuso, while in private his investors were discussing sale and leaseback deals for Ibrox and Murray Park â?? and the presence of Smith will galvanise them. His two trophy-laden spells at Ibrox raised him up alongside Bill Struth as perhaps Rangers' most revered manager, and the role he seeks now is to help rebuild the club from scratch. None within the consortium wanted Rangers to exit administration through the newco route, but all are determined that this opportunity to properly restore both the team and the institution should not be missed.

 

The £6m bid, which was lodged with Duff & Phelps, liquidators BDO and Green's people yesterday, is fully-funded and is not a loan but instead a capital injection. Funds are already to hand to meet initial running costs, while other Rangers-supporting businessmen will step up. When the club's new strip was launched earlier in the summer, sales were significantly larger than normal and supporters are still prepared to spend their own money to save the club. With Smith at the head of this new consortium, the expectation is that season tickets will sell rapidly. Yet during the past week, the ticket office has been fielding calls from fans to cancel their season tickets because of unhappiness with Green, and no fans will sign up now until he sells to Smith's group.

 

Even although McColl is one of Scotland's richest men, and Park is an extremely successful businessman in his own right, this will not be the beginning of another period of extravagant spending. The club will live within its means, focusing on good corporate governance, full transparency, youth development and worldwide scouting. The intention is to restore Rangers, but without previous owners' lack of restraint.

 

Smith, as chairman, will oversee this rebuilding process, while McColl will be a non-executive director. Along with Park, he will assist Smith in appointing the key corporate management figures, with the first priority being a new chief executive. With that figure, Smith will begin to negotiate with the Scottish Premier League and the Scottish Football Association to determine the fate of newco Rangers in Scottish football. The presence of Smith should help to ease the tense relationships between the club and those governing bodies.

 

"Our overriding objective is to ensure that the stadium, the history and everything else magical about Rangers is protected and nurtured back to good health and provide a platform for Rangers for generations to come," Smith said. "Let's be clear, this is an acquisition designed to stabilise the club and ensure history does not repeat itself. We are not in this to take money out of the club but to do whatever it takes in a turnaround plan to ensure within a few years the club can be passed on intact and to the right people.

 

"The supporters should be under no illusion that it will be extremely hard but with their support we can overcome financial hardship that lies ahead by lending their support to what we feel is the correct way forward â?? for Rangers people who know the club inside and out to control its destiny."

 

Once the club is stabilised and beginning the long, slow process of recovery, a share issue will be launched to allow fans and other investors to make their own contribution. McColl, in particular, had been a reluctant bidder. His stance was that he did not want to see the club go out of existence, but he has no intention of running it. He decided to step back in at this late stage because he feared that Green's reign would end in further financial calamity. Green's bid is a classic danger in liquidation scenarios: an underfunded buyer who sees an opportunity to exploit a struggling business, but who does not have the funds to meet running costs or restore revenue streams. These cases almost inevitably lead to a second insolvency event.

 

"The question we will be asked now, [which] I was certainly asked by the administrator, is why didn't we come forward before," McColl said. "The answer is no-one wanted to own the club. When we see the way it is going, everyone has been forced to say, 'Look, we have to do something'."

 

Green was aware of the willingness of Smith's consortium to take over before yesterday morning's failed CVA vote. With the players unlikely to allow their registrations to be transferred to the newco under Green and relations with McCoist strained past breaking point, there seems nowhere for Green to go. He has the stadium, the training ground and the Albion car park, but no fans or players.

 

Negotiations continue, but even if a new bidder entered the scene, they do not have the leverage of Smith, Park and McColl, who have the team, and the fans, at heart.

[Frankie 8,151]

And another:

 

Smith will be involved in the appointment of an entirely new corporate governance structure, but Ally McCoist would remain as the Ibrox club's manager.

 

The group, which includes Douglas Park, the transport tycoon, and Jim McColl, one of Scotland's richest men and the head of the worldwide Clyde Blowers engineering firm, hope that the influence of Smith and McCoist would persuade the majority of the club's players to agree to their contracts and registrations being transferred to the newco Rangers. That is unlikely to happen under Green, with many of the squad deeply unhappy at the attitude of the Yorkshireman and Duff & Phelps, the administrators.

 

Smith is fronting the £6m bid and would be the club's figurehead. He will have an influence in all appointments, with assistance from Park and McColl, two highly successful and connected businessmen. As a matter of urgency, a chief executive will be sought, and he would join Smith in negotiations with the Scottish Premier League and the Scottish Football Association on the newco Rangers' place in the game and all sanctions. It is hoped that the presence of Smith, in particular, would go some way to repairing relations that have been strained by the way Duff & Phelps and Green have been approaching issues such as the registration embargo and the transfer of oldco Rangers' league share.

 

While Smith will not be involved in the day-to-day running of the business, he will oversee the complete rebuilding of the club. The £6m is not a loan but a capital injection, with Park and McColl, who will become a non-executive director, and other Rangers-supporting Scottish businessmen prepared to fund any working capital needed until season ticket revenue is gathered. A share issue will also be launched.

 

"None of us have any confidence that this is a secure way forward," McColl said of Green's consortium. "I don't think he will get the fans' support, and the players' support. We wouldn't have come out with this if we had been comfortable it was being saved, everything was going to be hunky-dory. There is real concern about this being a rerun of what has happened before.

 

"The focus is to make sure this is stabilised and safe. Rangers is far too important for Scotland, Scottish football, and Glasgow to be messed up again. This [bid] is because the group that is involved want to make sure that it is in safe hands. The way it is going, it is not being transparent. There is just worry, with all the club has been through."

 

There was doubt that Green would even be able to pull together the funding to complete his bid, but the formalities appeared to be completed late yesterday afternoon. He was immediately caught out, however, when he said that Ian Hart, the Glasgow businessman, was one of his investors. Hart, who was part of the Blue Knights consortium, along with Park, that previously tried to buy the club, denied the claim immediately.

 

"A number of years ago, I invested in the youth development department and that money was lying in the youth development department," Hart said. "At the time when Charles Green was the preferred bidder and was going for the CVA, I allowed that money to be used in order to get a CVA, for the simple reason of trying to help to save the club. But I am not part of his consortium and I've been behind Douglas Park in the previous bid with the Blue Knights. I spoke with Douglas yesterday and today, and I was very happy to be involved in putting more investment into his bid."

 

Green, however, remained bullish, and claimed that he would not sell his own shareholding, although admitted other investors would. He did not deny that Rafat Rizvi, who was found guilty on corruption and money- laundering charges in Indonesia in 2010, and former Sheffield United chairman Mike McDonald are part of his Sevco consortium.

 

"I can assure you there are easier ways to make a quick buck," Green said. "Some of our investors have never been to Scotland. They saw this as a business opportunity. So, if you're offering a profit, they'll take it.

 

"This is not Charles Green and a few dodgy guys who came up in a bus from Yorkshire. I am the best chief exec this club has had in the last quite a few years. Now that might just be my ego running away with me but I know I bought this club without any help."

 

Yet Green does not have the money to fund the club's working capital needs, and season ticket sales will plummet now that fans are backing Smith's consortium. "We ask Charles Green to step aside from any deal to purchase Rangers and allow Walter Smith and co to lead us into this new era for our club," said a Rangers Supporters' Trust statement. "[We] call on all supporters' to hold off renewing season tickets until this situation is resolved."

[the gunslinger 3,366]

excellent articles Frankie. provides som flesh to the bones of what's been happening.

[der Berliner 3,247]

Excellent articles ... who essentially all heap negativity on Green and whip up feelings for Smith & Co..

 

I would be over the moon if Smith & Co. get their way, the treatment of Green leaves A LOT to be desired though.

Edited June 15, 2012 by der Berliner

[the gunslinger 3,366]

greens collateral damage. he's assured a profit and I doubt he's botheted about the flack.

[GovanAllan 0]

I don't get the bit about W&Co running the club within its means then saying Green doesn't have the cash to run the club.

 

Surely within its means, means the club is using its own income with the occasional short term bank loan.

[bigy 0]

I'm all behind Walter and co, but my big concern is why they didn't pay more up from a few weeks ago. Ok, it lets Green take any flack from a newco, but if it was properly explained and they first tried to get a CVA I don't think anyone would have mind.

 

Given Green's bid was only £8.5m, and McColl and co have much greater funds at their disposal, it remains a mystery.

[Tannochsidebear 2,315]

I got a few paragraphs into the first article when I read the following;

 

"Yet during the past week, the ticket office has been fielding calls from fans to cancel their season tickets because of unhappiness with Green, and no fans will sign up now until he sells to Smith's group."

 

This is complete fabrication as the renewals were only issued over the weekend. Are we saying that some fans (nobody I have heard of has even contemplated sending their renewal yet) sent their renewal in, got their confirmation back, and then phoned up to cancel it all in a couple of days.

 

No point reading any further after that.

[the gunslinger 3,366]

I got a few paragraphs into the first article when I read the following;

 

"Yet during the past week, the ticket office has been fielding calls from fans to cancel their season tickets because of unhappiness with Green, and no fans will sign up now until he sells to Smith's group."

 

This is complete fabrication as the renewals were only issued over the weekend. Are we saying that some fans (nobody I have heard of has even contemplated sending their renewal yet) sent their renewal in, got their confirmation back, and then phoned up to cancel it all in a couple of days.

 

No point reading any further after that.

 

if your on the direct debit system you need to phone and cancel or they take the money. even if you've cancelled the direct debit in my case on year. they simply set it up again without permission.

[calscot 0]

I don't get the bit about W&Co running the club within its means then saying Green doesn't have the cash to run the club.

 

Surely within its means, means the club is using its own income with the occasional short term bank loan.

 

There will be upfront costs before the club can be run within its means - we may even have to buy a whole new squad. You also need cash flow or you go under no matter how well a business is run and how much it break's even.

 

If you buy a run down taxi, you still need to service it, buy new tyres, insure it, tax it, pay for your licence and put petrol in the tank before you can start earn money to break even.