Frankie 8,114 Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/end-of-an-era-as-murray-closes-illustrious-charlotte-square-hq.25482419 FORMER Rangers owner Sir David Murray's 30-year business empire has shut its headquarters in one of Edinburgh's most prestigious addresses prior to being wound up with debts of more than £300 million. Murray International Holdings (MIH) has left the Georgian office building in Charlotte Square, where it built a conglomerate backed by £900m of borrowings from Bank of Scotland before the credit crunch. The closure follows the sale last month of its last major subsidiary, the call centre business Response. The Glasgow-based call firm was severely hit by the loss of a major sales and support contract with Sky, which 950 people worked on, in 2012. Response employed 1,200 of the 2,000 people at MIH firms before the sale. Sir David said 95 per cent of jobs at MIH companies had been kept on. The Murray nameplate lives on in Charlotte Square, however, in the shape of Murray Capital, the biggest company in Sir David's private family empire after acquiring many of MIH's assets. The businessman said: "We are in the final throes of getting it sorted with the bank's support and there will be very few if any major creditors at all. The most important thing is we have preserved 95 per cent of the jobs in all the companies that have moved on. "All the various entities are now managed individually, and the focus has shifted to private interests. Murray Capital and all the family interests will be maintained from its office, which happens to be in Charlotte Square." On whether the debt to the Bank of Scotland was still close to the £351m disclosed in the last accounts, Sir David said: "We will find out. There will be a writedown for everybody, shareholders' funds as well as the bank. It will not be a positive result for anybody other than the important thing, which is the preservation of jobs, which was crucial for the bank." At its peak the bank debt stood at about £900m, Sir David said last year. It was reduced by £23m in the year to June 2013. The Response sale followed a string of disposals over the previous two years, many of them to Sir David's private companies in "arm's-length" transactions. Biggest among them was the unpublicised sale of the group's original steels business in May 2012 for £14m, to a management buy-out backed by Sir David's family interests. Murray Capital, the family empire's biggest private company run by his son, also named David, paid MIH £14m for Murray Estates, which owns 800 acres of potential housing land in the Central Belt. Premier Property, the subsidiary that ran up much of the debt, has also vacated its office in Charlotte Square. It has recouped about £300m from sales over the past three years. Sir David, who sold Rangers in 2011 to Craig Whyte for £1, added: "Many of the properties were 60-40 or 50-50 ventures with the bank, it was a workout process we have done together." He expected the remaining assets would be disposed of by the end of the year, leaving MIH as a shell. Sir David said reports in May of a £22m black hole in the MIH pension scheme were alarmist. "We are putting £3.6m into the group pension scheme and we believe that should be sufficient to give benefits in excess of the Pension Protection Fund," he said. MIH made a £24.9m pre-tax loss on turnover of £85.6m in 2012-13. Writing in the last published accounts Sir David highlighted the asset disposals and debt reduction as a "significant and a very credible performance" in a difficult market. However the board and shareholders admitted bank indebtedness and the pension liability cast "significant doubt upon the company's ability to continue as a going concern". 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frankie 8,114 Posted October 2, 2014 Author Share Posted October 2, 2014 And by way of contrast - some news on Dave King's business interestings: http://micro.hosted.inet.co.za/inews/news/story/6a115eb7-8023-45de-b585-0d3a3ad37644/withrelated/1 In terms of the Listings Requirements of the JSE Limited, companies are required to publish a trading statement as soon as they become reasonably certain that the financial results for the period to be reported on will differ by more than 20% from that of the previous corresponding period. Accordingly, a review of the financial results for the six month period ended 30 September 2014 by management has indicated that the basic earnings per share and headline earnings per share are expected to be at least 70% higher, compared to the basic earnings per share of 26.05 cents and the headline earnings per share of 26.02 cents for the six month period ended 30 June 2013. A further trading statement will be released once the Company has a greater degree of certainty with regards to its financial results for the financial period. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
the gunslinger 3,366 Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 Still asset stripping then. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sannybear 0 Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 He's too fly to go down with the ship like his father did . Incredible that a bottom feeder like whyte got one over him isn't it ? . 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhunter 0 Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 Sir David's private companies in "arm's-length" transactions. Is this as dodgy as it sounds? 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zappa 0 Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 And by way of contrast - some news on Dave King's business interestings: http://micro.hosted.inet.co.za/inews/news/story/6a115eb7-8023-45de-b585-0d3a3ad37644/withrelated/1 MMG has been doing well since his SARS settlement, but the upturn in the company performance might not amount to much extra cash for King personally unless he were to sell up his shareholding in the company. If you're thinking along the lines of dividends, then MMG shareholders only got about 1p per share this summer, so if you held 50m shares in the company (example figure only!), then your dividend payment was only £500,000. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
the gunslinger 3,366 Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 MMG has been doing well since his SARS settlement, but the upturn in the company performance might not amount to much extra cash for King personally unless he were to sell up his shareholding in the company. If you're thinking along the lines of dividends, then MMG shareholders only got about 1p per share this summer, so if you held 50m shares in the company (example figure only!), then your dividend payment was only £500,000. what is his salary at mmg though. SDM was paying himself fortunes iirc in the years before MIH got into bother. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zappa 0 Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 what is his salary at mmg though. It's listed as: Salary: R2,826,000 Bonus: R1,500,000 Total Annual Compensation: R4,326,000 So it's basically about £240,000 including bonus. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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