Take Over

[Breightmet Boy]

12 minutes ago, bwfcfan5 said:

Bassini said it in an interview...."David has £25M to help with the purchase of the ground and hotel".

Sullivan can't own the club - because he is co-owner at WHU but he can own the assets - and Bassini run it. That was the plan. 

So is Bassini getting everything else, training ground etc for free?  If Sullivan cannot have any interest in our club because of his involvement in WHUFC you can bet your bottom dollar hes not trusting Bassini with £25m unless he's getting a huge return.  Didnt take long after ED'Spassing for the vultures and rats to swoop and take all the rich pickings.  Ill add Sullivan to my hated list

[Okocha10]

7 minutes ago, bwfcfan5 said:

I will bet the hotel is not sold today. 

It wont be sold today but Quantuma will give a preferred like David & Rubin Patners did

[chrisw99]

11 minutes ago, Okocha10 said:

Supposedly it's still going ahead the sale of the hotel today, could be the end of FV then if they don't get it 

It was the deadline for bids today.   The administrators then have to go away and decide who was the winning bid.  That could take weeks knowing their ability to drag things out.. 

[bwfcfan5]

Just now, Breightmet Boy said:

So is Bassini getting everything else, training ground etc for free?  If Sullivan cannot have any interest in our club because of his involvement in WHUFC you can bet your bottom dollar hes not trusting Bassini with £25m unless he's getting a huge return.  Didnt take long after ED'Spassing for the vultures and rats to swoop and take all the rich pickings.  Ill add Sullivan to my hated list

He's into property so will fancy the ground and hotel. Bassini can run the club into the ground and Sullivan take over. Or if Bassini did well Sullivan can charge a nice exorbitant rate to rent the ground. 

The £25M is supposedly enough to buy out of admin - Bassini said he had a "few million" too. But the point is that after the capital investment and Sullivan owning the land - Bassini would have to self finance and he'd have no assets to borrow against either.

It was always a terrible idea. I also think it wasn't fully fleshed out didn't Jordan say that Sullivan had said "he was interested" rather than a definitive plan?

[bwfcfan5]

2 minutes ago, Okocha10 said:

It wont be sold today but Quantuma will give a preferred like David & Rubin Patners did

Unconvinced that will happen or was ever happening but we will see. Certainly another thing to put the cat amongst the pigeons. 

[Okocha10]

5 minutes ago, bwfcfan5 said:

Unconvinced that will happen or was ever happening but we will see. Certainly another thing to put the cat amongst the pigeons. 

Suppose if FV did get announced as the preferred bidder today it be another massive boost for the claim for the club & they could put more funds in for the match tomorrow. All if's & but's.... 

Edited August 9, 2019 by Okocha10

[Wanderlust]

We're pretty good at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory and having managed to get my own jaw back off the floor since hearing this news yesterday I think that the only conclusion we can draw from it is that whilst we don't know who did what to whom,  when and why,  we do know it's going to cost the club one way or another.

If it's true that FV had only managed to cobble together enough dosh to buy the club and hotel and operate on a limited budget as has been suggested these additional costs may put paid to them.

If players and potential signings had been promised a swift resolution this may be the end of their faith in the club.

Fans? Well I think we've been on the rack long enough without this.

A terrible situation has just been made worse and if we ever see the good times again they will be all the sweeter for it.

[bwfcfan5]

1 minute ago, Okocha10 said:

Suppose if FV did get announced as the preferred bidder today it be another massive boost for the claim for the club & they could put more funds in for the match tomorrow. All if's & but's.... 

It doesn't mean anything - the deal for club and hotel needs signing of by secured creditors. They can be named as preferred bidder as much as they want - but until the creditors agree to a plan then it doesn't mean anything. 

[Okocha10]

5 minutes ago, bwfcfan5 said:

It doesn't mean anything - the deal for club and hotel needs signing of by secured creditors. They can be named as preferred bidder as much as they want - but until the creditors agree to a plan then it doesn't mean anything. 

Well supposedly the creditor's all did agree to FV yesterday according to Paul Appleton? Does Bassini's claim stop them getting the hotel as well.

[bwfcfan5]

4 minutes ago, Okocha10 said:

Well supposedly the creditor's all did agree to FV yesterday according to Paul Appleton? Does Bassini's claim stop them getting the hotel as well.

Not sure he says that. But we'll see. 

[Zico]

emailed him to see if he wants to meet for a pint in Barnstormers tomorrow, and that I'll help him sneak in the ground as I don't think they'll let him through the front doors

[Wanderlust]

Clutching at straws here, and I know history means nothing but it's 60 years since I went to my first Wanderers match and in all that time the lowest spot (before this) was when we got relegated to Division 4 in '87 - but Division 4 turned out to be a not so bad experience and we bounced straight back up thanks in part to a most unlikely source, Robbie Savage FFS who scored the goal that confirmed our promotion back to the 3rd tier.

Maybe, just maybe our darkest hour will turn out to be not so bad after all and we'll be saved by an unlikely source again?

Probably not, but I have to have some straw to clutch at in times like these.

[chrisw99]

2 minutes ago, Hoppy510 said:

Clutching at straws here, and I know history means nothing but it's 60 years since I went to my first Wanderers match and in all that time the lowest spot (before this) was when we got relegated to Division 4 in '87 - but Division 4 turned out to be a not so bad experience and we bounced straight back up thanks in part to a most unlikely source, Robbie Savage FFS who scored the goal that confirmed our promotion back to the 3rd tier.

Maybe, just maybe our darkest hour will turn out to be not so bad after all and we'll be saved by an unlikely source again?

Probably not, but I have to have some straw to clutch at in times like these.

Dropping to the 4th tier worked out well for Man City as well.

And it's almost certain we are going to be in the 4th tier next season - can't see any other outcome as things stand.

 

[Okocha10]

Games on lads!!

[ZiggyStardust]

4 minutes ago, chrisw99 said:

Dropping to the 4th tier worked out well for Man City as well

 

When did that happen ?

[Daveh]

4 minutes ago, chrisw99 said:

Dropping to the 4th tier worked out well for Man City as well.

And it's almost certain we are going to be in the 4th tier next season - can't see any other outcome as things stand.

 

4th tier? 🤔🤔

They were  playing Macclesfield in the 3rd tier about 20 years ago, but no lower I don’t think.

[Chris Custodiet]

Laurence Bassini is plainly a loose cannon but he seems to have hit Mr Appleton with a bazooka. I seem to recall Bassini making this threat weeks ago. Could Mr Appleton have done nothing to head it off?

I can’t honestly say that I’ve spent much of my life reading the reports of company administrators but as one of 6,000 shareholders in Burnden Leisure, I thought that I should at least make some attempt to read Mr Appleton's report on BL.

Most of its taken up on how much Rubin's charge for their services but it begins by telling us that BL was formed in 1938 as a 'special purpose vehicle' to hold shares in BWFC. Now that surprised me a bit because, like many of the other 6,000 shareholders, I knew that it was actually formed as an engineering company in Birmingham called Press Tools in 1938 and didn't have any interest in BWFC until its ill-fated reverse takeover of BWFC 59 years later.

I say ill-fated because, in next to no time, its cash reserves disappeared down the plug hole just like Eddie's millions did after he rode into town in 1999 to help rescue the club from the financial crisis it faced on that occasion. A certain Dean Holdsworth was on the payroll at the time, but that's another story.

In Section 3 Appleton fails to disclose the trading results for 2017/18. Although these have not been signed off by the auditors, who seem to be unpaid for past services, they almost certainly will have been filed with the EFL and are plainly relevant to any understanding of the group’s recent financial history.

In Section 4, Appleton explains the background to his appointment and describes Ken Anderson’s attempt to sell the shares between 15 March and 8 May as being ‘overly protracted’. He surely could not have expected it to have been like shelling peas.

From 1999 until his death in 2018, Eddie Davies spent an average of nearly £10m p.a. on ‘his hobby’. Most of it was eventually written off but Fildraw/Moonshift/EDT are, according to para10.1, claiming they are owed circa £17m with Ken Anderson claiming he is owed circa £7.5m. Fildraw were responsible for Rubin’s appointment but Mr Appleton has provided no satisfactory explanation as to why he has reduced their claim to £10,050,000 and Anderson’s to £1,578,042.

Let’s see what Quantuma have to say today.

[chrisw99]

17 minutes ago, ZiggyStardust said:

When did that happen ?

Sorry, getting confused with all the changes in terminology of the leagues.  Yeah they only dropped to the 3rd.

[Sluffy]

13 minutes ago, Chris Custodiet said:

Laurence Bassini is plainly a loose cannon but he seems to have hit Mr Appleton with a bazooka. I seem to recall Bassini making this threat weeks ago. Could Mr Appleton have done nothing to head it off?

I can’t honestly say that I’ve spent much of my life reading the reports of company administrators but as one of 6,000 shareholders in Burnden Leisure, I thought that I should at least make some attempt to read Mr Appleton's report on BL.

Most of its taken up on how much Rubin's charge for their services but it begins by telling us that BL was formed in 1938 as a 'special purpose vehicle' to hold shares in BWFC. Now that surprised me a bit because, like many of the other 6,000 shareholders, I knew that it was actually formed as an engineering company in Birmingham called Press Tools in 1938 and didn't have any interest in BWFC until its ill-fated reverse takeover of BWFC 59 years later.

I say ill-fated because, in next to no time, its cash reserves disappeared down the plug hole just like Eddie's millions did after he rode into town in 1999 to help rescue the club from the financial crisis it faced on that occasion. A certain Dean Holdsworth was on the payroll at the time, but that's another story.

In Section 3 Appleton fails to disclose the trading results for 2017/18. Although these have not been signed off by the auditors, who seem to be unpaid for past services, they almost certainly will have been filed with the EFL and are plainly relevant to any understanding of the group’s recent financial history.

In Section 4, Appleton explains the background to his appointment and describes Ken Anderson’s attempt to sell the shares between 15 March and 8 May as being ‘overly protracted’. He surely could not have expected it to have been like shelling peas.

From 1999 until his death in 2018, Eddie Davies spent an average of nearly £10m p.a. on ‘his hobby’. Most of it was eventually written off but Fildraw/Moonshift/EDT are, according to para10.1, claiming they are owed circa £17m with Ken Anderson claiming he is owed circa £7.5m. Fildraw were responsible for Rubin’s appointment but Mr Appleton has provided no satisfactory explanation as to why he has reduced their claim to £10,050,000 and Anderson’s to £1,578,042.

Let’s see what Quantuma have to say today.

Interesting Chris, thank you.

It now makes some sense of a line I picked out of his report that we had at one time land interests in and around Birmingham (page 1 of Appendix 5).

I did think that was somewhat strange when I read it!

[Chris Custodiet]

39 minutes ago, Sluffy said:

Interesting Chris, thank you.

It now makes some sense of a line I picked out of his report that we had at one time land interests in and around Birmingham (page 1 of Appendix 5).

I did think that was somewhat strange when I read it!

My pleasure, mate. I expect that there's some double counting in the £17m and £7.5m.

i.e. the £7.5m is what Anderson borrowed from EDT to keep the club above water in 2017 and pay off Blumarble in 2018 but there does seem to be the possibility of factual circumnavigation in play.

The Birmingham land bit is a new one on me too. It would be a turn up if it amounted to summat but I rather doubt it.

[Sluffy]

2 hours ago, Benny The Ball said:

 

Maybe there is a clue in the timing 

Maybe back in May he genuinely did not have access to the required funds ( which was why Anderson walked away ) , Maybe he now does have the funding and backers 

Maybe until this week he has been quite relaxed about it because he thought by bidding high he would buy the hotel and thereby he would scupper FV s attempt to buy the Football Club and then  put himself in pole position to  buy the Football club through the back door so to speak 

Maybe in the last 48 hours he found out he was not going to get the Hotel as he thought he was and that FV were , and this injunction was the desperate response of a desperate man. 

A few maybes I know  - but no one saw this coming and we can only speculate  as to how we got to where we are. 

This would be consistent with Appleton saying the deal  was about to be concluded  though

 

Regarding selling and renting back the ground - think this will happen whoever buys the club 

 

But isn't this the point - isn't he claiming that he did complete the deal at this stage?

Thanks for your early reply to me which did go to the very heart of the matter in that BL holds the golden share.

I was rather more thinking around the issues resulting from his stated position that he had purchased BL and what that purchase included, namely did it or did it not include the club (BWFAC) and hotel (Bolton Whites Hotel Ltd) as well?

Surely he had must have thought he was buying the stadium and the hotel (the Administrator in his own report states the two are "inextricably linked" and "the sale of the hotel is highly contingent on the sale of the Football Club" - Section 5.5, page 7 of his report) otherwise what was he going to do with his golden EFL share, unless he intended to set up a football club elsewhere (as per MK Dons some years back)?

So an injunction against BL would surely effect the Administrator at the hotel also - although there seems to be no mention of this anywhere?

I also mentioned that if he truly believed he had bought BL from Anderson, then surely he would have submitted the injunction when the respective Administrators started marketing for sale both the club and the hotel - and not wait until the last possible moment to submit one?

I also can't fathom out how Anderson sold the shares whilst he had an outstanding loan of £5m on them - surely that had to be settled before ownership of BL and hence the golden share and the club, hotel, etc could have been purchased by Bassini?

Something seems totally false in Bassini's action to my eyes but obviously not to those that matter such as the judge who granted the injunction.

No doubt everything will come out in the wash soon enough.

[Wanderlust]

1 hour ago, Chris Custodiet said:

In Section 3 Appleton fails to disclose the trading results for 2017/18. Although these have not been signed off by the auditors, who seem to be unpaid for past services, they almost certainly will have been filed with the EFL and are plainly relevant to any understanding of the group’s recent financial history.

 

Just to drag us back from the land of pretending to know who was thinking what for a minute, I'd point out that if IIRC the frequently-quoted 2016/17 accounts weren't signed off as a true and accurate statement of the situation either and the auditors made it clear they had reservations about what they were being told.

I actually don't know the last time a set of accounts were filed wherein the auditors were happy to say that they fully believed in the information they were given.

Our true financial picture may be a long way from what is in the public domain, especially if one lie is built upon another, hence the futility of speculation. It was my hope that once Anderson was out of the way, a new (responsible) owner would spell out the true situation in order to baseline the new regime - maybe that will still happen.

[Casino]

just catching up

 

no mention on here of our challenging the injuction today?

[Matty]

Judge Erye was hearing a very non descript injunction hearing today for ‘a company’ 

potentially could be our admins, but who knows 

[bwfcfan5]

7 minutes ago, Casino said:

just catching up

 

no mention on here of our challenging the injuction today?

I really hope we are. Not sure how easy that is to do though - anyone know?