Rangers administrators to pay £3.4MILLION for failing to sell players......

[ian1964 10,377]

....

Ibrox or Murray Park.. and taking McCoist advice

James Mulholland

• 16:07, 6 Oct 2021
• Updated: 16:51, 6 Oct 2021

 

TWO FINANCIAL experts whose actions in trying to save Rangers fell below an ‘ordinarily competent’ standard have been ordered to pay £3.4million to the club’s liquidators.

Judge Lord Tyre found on Wednesday that David Whitehouse and Paul Clark breached their duties whilst acting as administrators at the then ailing club.

In a judgement issued at the Court of Session in Edinburgh, Lord Tyre ordered the duo to hand over £3,404,500 to financial services firm BDO. 

The company had won the sum following proceedings which were heard at Scotland’s highest civil court earlier this years. 

BDO’s legal team told Lord Tyre that both Mr Whitehouse and Mr Clark failed to cut costs sufficiently well enough after they were drafted into save the club almost 10 years ago. 

Advocate Kenny McBrearty QC claimed the pair could have stopped the club from being liquidated and made it more attractive to potential buyers by making staff redundant. 

Mr McBrearty also told the court that both Mr Whitehouse and Mr Clark could have sold on players like Steven Naismith, Steven Whittaker, Maurice Edu and Kyle Lafferty. 

He also said that Mr Whitehouse and Clark should have considered selling club assets like training ground Murray Park. The lawyer said the pair should have thought about a deal which would have seen Ibrox being sold and being leased back to the club. 

In a 125 page judgement, Lord Tyre agreed with the submissions made by Mr McBrearty. 

Writing about the way Mr Whitehouse and Mr Clark considered redundancies, Lord Tyre wrote that the men relied too much on a report which had been provided to them by manager Ally McCoist.

He wrote: “I address firstly the steps taken by the respondents to inform themselves of the factors relevant to their decision-making in relation to player and non-player redundancies and player sales.

“In my opinion the respondents’ actings in this regard fell below the standard reasonably to be expected of an ordinarily competent administrator in a number of respects. 

“I am satisfied that the respondents acted without having taken independent advice on certain critical matters about which they required to be informed. 

“As regards player redundancies, they relied upon the opinion of the manager, Mr McCoist, whom they ought not to have regarded as being in a position to offer a dispassionate opinion as to the number of possible redundancies that could be made while leaving the club with a squad capable of fulfilling its fixtures, or the identities of the players who could be released. 

“It is noteworthy that his list included only four players proposed for release from contract, three of whom were in any event out of contract in three months’ time, and one (Alexander) in the twilight of his career. 

“The respondents regarded Mr McCoist’s proposal as insufficient but failed to follow through the implication of this, ie that they needed to obtain advice from someone else. 

“The consequence was that by the time of the negotiations of wage reductions, the respondents did not have a reliable list of potential redundancies to use when making a comparison with the savings obtainable from wage reductions.”

Mr Whitehouse, and Mr Clark - who were employed by financial services firm, Duff & Phelps - were appointed by the Court of Session as administrators after HMRC took Rangers to court for £18m of unpaid tax in February 2012.

The two men went on to sell the business and assets of the Oldco to Charles Green’s consortium for £5.5m before BDO were appointed to liquidate the old company.

The three men were later among seven indicted over fraud allegations relating to Rangers - before the case against them was dropped in June 2016. 

Both Mr Whitehouse and Mr Clark raised a multi million pound action against the police and prosecutors last year. Prosecutors admitted the case against the duo was “malicious” and conducted “without probable cause”. 

They both received multi million pound settlements. 

Prosecutors also admitted that Mr Green, who was also arrested during the probe and eventually acquitted, was wrongfully taken to court - and that the prosecution against him was malicious.

At proceedings earlier this year, Mr McBrearty told the court that the two administrators acted negligently. 

He said: “What we have said is that a hallmark of negligence is the failure to take advice. What we have said is that a common hallmark of negligence is a failure to take specialist advice from people experienced in the business of the company.”

Both Mr Whitehouse and Mr Clark denied the negligence claim. 

Their legal team claimed that they didn’t want to sell players on, make redundancies, or sell assets as they feared that these moves would put off potential buyers.

However, Lord Tyre rejected the claims. 

He said the evidence available showed that by not selling on players or making redundancies, they had failed in their duties as administrators to minimise costs and maximise revenues. 

He wrote that both Mr Whitehouse and Mr Clark could have sold on players to clubs outside the transfer window. The court heard such a measure was possible providing that clubs agreed that the moves weren’t completed until the transfer window opened. 

He wrote: “I have already observed that I do not accept the respondents’ evidence that they considered and rejected a strategy of player sales because they wished to keep the squad intact for prospective purchasers. 

“It is in my view much more likely that they did not fully investigate player sales because they proceeded on the assumption that none could take place except to clubs playing in countries whose transfer window was open, but which were not markets in which Rangers players would usually be sold.

“The evidence..demonstrates that sales outside the transfer window, although uncommon, are not prohibited, provided that both clubs and the player are content with a situation in which the player remains unregistered with the purchasing club until the opening of the next window.”

Lord Tyre also wrote that the administrators should have accepted a £1.7 million bid made in April 2012 from West Bromwich Albion for Steven Naismith.

The court heard that the administrators refused the bid on the basis that Naismith had a £2million buy out clause in his contract and that the bid was too low to activate it. 

But Lord Tyre concluded that Mr Whitehouse and Mr Clark acted incorrectly. 

Making reference to calculations made by Duff & Phelps employee Simon Shipperlee about the impact of accepting the bid, Lord Tyre wrote: “In my opinion the respondents were in breach of duty in failing to decide to accept the final offer of £1.7million made on 13April. 

“As Mr Shipperlee calculated at the time, the offer to relieve the company of Mr Naismith’s wage bill meant that the offer was worth about £1.85 million, as compared to the figure of £2 million in the buy out clause which in practical terms was the highest amount for which the company could have sold the player.”

Lord Tyre wrote that the administrators should have done more to consider selling on Murray Park and selling Ibrox to lease it back. 

He wrote that these moves could have also helped the club’s financial position. This was because the bids being made for the club wouldn’t have allowed it to meet its financial obligations. 

Lord Tyre wrote: “It ought, in my view, to have been apparent to the respondents at least from the time when indicative bids of around £10 million were being received, that there was a likelihood that a sale of the entirety of the business as a going concern would not maximise the return for creditors. 

“Exploration of other options would have lengthened the period of the administration, with cost implications, but in the predicament in which the respondents found themselves, it seems to me that it was something that had to be done, and that the respondents were in breach of their duty in failing to do so.”

In the judgement, Lord Tyre broke down the £3,404,500 on the following basis - £977,500 for failing to sell on ‘marketable’ players, £827,000 for failing to sell on Steven Naismith, £750,000 for failing to consider the ‘lease and sale’ of Ibrox, and £850,000 for the ‘loss of chance’ of selling on Murray Park. 

Lord Tyre concluded: "I hold that the noters are entitled.. to an order that the respondents contribute the following sum to the company's property by way of compensation for breach of duty.”

 

https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/7809664/rangers-administrators-ibrox-murray-park-mccoist/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1633532939

[RANGERRAB 3,252]

Somehow I don’t think selling those players or auchenhowie would have stopped the oldco being put into a liquidation process. The questionable actions of HMRC meant that liquidation was the only option. I’m sure however BDO will be aware of this.

[Uilleam 5,395]

 

HMRC official wanted to give oldco Rangers time to pay

Greig Cameron

Thursday October 07 2021, 12.01am, The Times

 

Rangers could have better handled its flagging fortunes with more time, according to one HMRC official

 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/hmrc-official-wanted-to-give-oldco-rangers-time-to-pay-0s92f59jg

 

A senior HMRC official suggested tax authorities should give Rangers FC more time to pay back its debt but his proposal was voted down by executives, new documents reveal.

Des Dolan, part of the revenue’s debt management and banking directorate, made representations to the highest level of the organisation as officers in his division favoured supporting a company voluntary arrangement (CVA). A CVA works either by giving a longer time period for a company to pay its debt or by creditors accepting they will receive a lower amount.

HMRC’s traditional position had been to vote against the CVA of a business when it came to such situations.

A judgment by Lord Tyre, in a case where BDO, the liquidator of RFC 2012, or oldco Rangers, pursued the former administrators of Rangers for compensation, reveals there was conflict in the authority about what to do.

Dolan is said to have presented a case during a meeting with some of HMRC’s executive committee and argued the CVA “would produce a better recovery” for the agency.

 

Mike Baird, the head of the finance professionals unit in HMRC’s specialist investigations directorate, argued the CVA should be rejected and a voluntary liquidation sought instead. He felt that would have maximised recovery and allowed an investigation to take place.

As the largest creditor, HMRC voting against the CVA meant it could not succeed. That resulted in the assets of RFC 2012 being sold to Charles Green’s Sevco consortium for £5.5 million.

HMRC said: “We can’t comment on identifiable businesses.”

 

What has happened?

Lord Tyre has ruled Paul Clark and David Whitehouse, the former administrators of Rangers FC, could have done more to bring in money for creditors of the Ibrox club back in 2012. He has awarded BDO, the liquidator of RFC 2012, £3.4 million plus interest.

 

Why does this matter?

It will again raise questions about how the administration and financial collapse of Rangers was handled. It also gives BDO additional money potentially to pay creditors.

 

What happens next?

Unless there is an appeal by either side the decision will stand and the money will need to be paid. It is up to BDO to decide how the cash is used.

 

[Scott7 5,108]

10 minutes ago, Uilleam said:

It is up to BDO to decide how the cash is used.

 

I bet they wish it was.

[Uilleam 5,395]

Just now, Scott7 said:

I bet they wish it was.

Messrs BDO's fees and disbursements will be first for payout, I suspect. 

[RANGERRAB 3,252]

More time to pay back the debt ??? ?

 

The question that should be getting asked is why Whyte was allowed to build the debt up in the first place. And over a period of  6 month. Most other clubs didn’t get more than a month before HMRC came calling once they’d defaulted 

 

Was it to allow the debt to get to an amount so as to allow HMRC to block the CVA?

 

looks that way to me. hopefully to BDO too.

[trueblue 64 53]

The question I want answered is why was Murray's offer to settle for a one off payment rejected when many clubs in England were accepted.

[Bluedell 5,329]

It shows that things could have been a lot worse. Ibrox and Auchenhowie could have been sold and then what state would the club be in now?

 

Thankfully D&P did the right thing for us, even if it was for the wrong reasons.

[RANGERRAB 3,252]

On 11/10/2021 at 13:30, trueblue 64 said:

The question I want answered is why was Murray's offer to settle for a one off payment rejected when many clubs in England were accepted.

Another unanswered question. Hopefully BDO will answer

Edited October 12, 2021 by RANGERRAB