Banker puts in bid to buy Fratton Park from Portpin

[Mick Hill]

http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/sport/pompe ... -1-4968855


AN investment banker who wants to take over Pompey has announced he has put in a £6.3m bid to buy Fratton Park.


Keith Harris has put an offer on the table to release the charge on the ground from Balram Chainrai’s company Portpin.

However, the group would then need to buy the club from the administrators and convince the Football League that it should become new owners.

Administrators BDO – formerly known as PKF – and Portpin are set to meet in the High Court next week for a hearing to set the valuation of Fratton Park.

The judge will be asked to give permission to sell the ground against Portpin’s wishes, and then place a value on the ground. But he can’t force the administrators to sell to any one buyer.

Mr Harris’ consortium has offered £6.3m for the ground in order to get it from Portpin

Portsmouth Supporters Trust (PST) also wants to buy the club, in a community-funded takeover.

Ashley Brown, chairman of the PST, said that the Trust would invest between £3m and £5m into the club.

He said: ‘Keith Harris is supposed to be a football man but is making a bid only for the football ground, not the club. It just shows the bid up for what it is. It makes it clear that the PST bid for the football club is in the best interest of the fans and the club.

‘They need to get the football league to change their mind. At the moment they have said they won’t accept any other offers for the football club.

‘We have already exchanged contracts to buy the football club with the administrators.’

David Bick, spokesman for Mr Harris, said: ‘The firm offer of £6.3m was made about two or three weeks ago.

‘We know that Portpin are prepared to release their security with an offer at that level.

‘The issue is still with the administrators.

‘They are still saying that the football league’s position is to deal with the PST.

‘We don’t think that’s the position at all. But they appear determined at the moment to go ahead with this hearing next week.

‘They know they are sitting here with a firm offer from us which will make £750,000 available to the unsecured creditors, and a £6.3m bid for the stadium.

‘We appreciate that everybody wants to see Portpin away from this for good. On that basis, we decided to make an outright cash offer for the stadium.’

Mr Bick said that if the bid was accepted, there would be no further involvement by Portpin or Mr Chainrai.

He also confirmed that there was around £3m available to keep the club running if the takeover did go through.

‘We think there’s a big question mark with the PST bid,’ he said.

‘It’s one thing buying a club but they have to leave enough working capital to run the club afterwards.

‘Our fear is that they get the bid through and in a year’s time, they are in financial trouble. With Keith’s bid, it will ensure the financial survival of the club.’

A spokesman for BDO said: ‘We are continuing to prepare for next week’s court case.

‘Because of the situation we aren’t going to comment in any detail on this.’


WHAT DOES THE COURT CASE INVOLVE?

NEXT week’s court case will determine the value of Fratton Park.

Portpin is asking any group wishing to purchase the club to hand over around £9m for the ground.

But the PST says it is worth far less and has offered £3m for it.

Now it will be up to a judge to decide how much the ground is worth.

Due to take place at the High Court in London, the hearing will be held on either Wednesday or Thursday.

If the judge agrees with the Trust about the value of the ground, it will then formally allow them to complete the takeover and own Pompey.

[Locky_McLockface]

Oh, FFS.

[BlueinPLtwenty]

Surprise surprise

[Lost in Transportation]

Oh, FFS.

Its part of the game-playing ahead of the court case.

[Locky_McLockface]

Oh, FFS.

Its part of the game-playing ahead of the court case.

I appreciate that. Still frustrating.

[Bernster]

So what is the inference here? Harris is in cahoots with Chanrai to bolster the price and take a cut of any uplift in valuation as well as gain some media exposure ? His spokesperson also casts aspersions on the PST bid (no surprise there I suppose)

[eltorrro]

And what's to stop Harris from selling on to Chanrai who can then charge PST an enormous rental on the ground!! Or is this to sway the judge to up the price?

[Locky_McLockface]

No inference necessary, Bernster. When the Harris bid was first rejected by the FL, they explicitly said something along the lines of "In view of where this bid has come from". Harris is a Trojan Horse with Chainrai hiding inside.

Chainrai's only hope of getting anything significant in terms of a payday is for the club to be liquidated. This is to give Chainrai's lawyers the opportunity to say to the judge, "Look, this Harris bloke wants to give us double what the PST are offering, so the ground is worth far more".

The thing is that the judge has to decide whether the valuation represents market value. THe Football League have categorically stated that they will only transfer the Golden Share to the PST. Without the Golden Share, the club is (pretty much) worthless, certainly the PST won't buy the club without it. Therefore, the best deal for the creditors is for PKF/BDO to sell the club to the PST. The PST won't buy the club without buying Fratton Park.

The Harris "bid" cannot be considered valid, because it can't ever actually happen. I could offer £300M for Fratton Park, because I know I will never have the opportunity to buy Fratton Park, so I can say whatever I like. And that's what Harris is doing. It is not actually influencing the market valuation.

[Selsey Bill]

I'm sure everyone can see right through this. It's transparency at its murkiest!

[Earl Grey]

I'm sure everyone can see right through this. It's transparency at its murkiest!

Let's hope the court sees it for what it is.

It's imperative that the PST demonstrate in the clearest way possible that Harris is a puppet of Chainrai in the same way as many others have been.

The PST team must do this by outlining each incident on a timeline which shows how, as each set of circumstances has changed, by the most astonishing coincidence one of Chainrai's satellites have popped their heads above the parapet and acted in a way that suits one man, Chainrai. It needs to be shown how dirty tricks have been used to hush Micah Hall up, too.

[HappyHour@TheBreweryOfLife]

PST should reduce its own offer.

"Following a recent revaluation of the property, we have been advised that the market value has substantially reduced in the current economic climate."

[Lost in Transportation]

Meanwhile Blueballoo2000 has a new platform for his blogs: http://hallrightnow.blogspot.co.uk/2013 ... ompey.html

[Selsey Bill]

Meanwhile Blueballoo2000 has a new platform for his blogs: http://hallrightnow.blogspot.co.uk/2013 ... ompey.html

For those of you (abroad?) unable to read the above link, here it is:
The Harris bid risks liquidating Pompey

The Harris bid has now plumbed the very depths of futility, and poses a real risk to the future of Portsmouth Football Club.

Lets deal with the inaccuracies of their statement first:

Their quoted offer of £750k to unsecured creditors is less than the Trust's offer to unsecured creditors. That surely means it would require a new CVA to be voted for. Pompey must be out of administration before the last game of the season. That is totally unachievable in the timescale. However, maybe this forms part of their latest claimed deal with Portpin and Portpin have agreed to forego £100k of their own unsecured debt. (Bear in mind that it is highly possible that the majority of the unsecured creditors actually wind up being Portpin, as they are also the unsecured creditor of CSI's £10m debt, prop A Androinkou).

The egregious Bick also said:

‘We think there’s a big question mark with the PST bid,’ he said.‘It’s one thing buying a club but they have to leave enough working capital to run the club afterwards.‘Our fear is that they get the bid through and in a year’s time, they are in financial trouble. With Keith’s bid, it will ensure the financial survival of the club.’

Bick then claimed that the Harris bid have £3m of working capital to keep the club running.
Now the Trust have £3m working capital to put into the club, donated directly from fans. It is in escrow. The amount rises all the time - is the Harris bids money in escrow? Bick didn't explain how their £3m would be enough while ours isn't.

The most glaring problem with it though lies in this quote:
‘They are still saying that the football league’s position is to deal with the PST.‘We don’t think that’s the position at all. But they appear determined at the moment to go ahead with this hearing next week."

Their offer rests purely on scuppering the Trusts bid by helping Portpin win their court case, and then hoping the Football League will change their minds. Well, the Football League have confirmed FOUR times that they will not be considering any other bid than the PST bid. If the Football, League didn't really mean it, why did they instruct their lawyers to write to Portsmouth City Council weeks ago saying "there is only one commercially viable bid which is Pompey Supporters Trust"? If there wasn't time to consider new bids two months ago why would there now be enough time when there are just two weeks left for the club to exit administration?

When I've spoken to David Bick he repeatedly claimed that the Trust did not have the money to do the deal, that the council would not come through with their loan, that the Trust was seeking emergency bridging finance to do the deal and had only £1.2m in funds. That Stuart Robinson would not and had not come up with the money to buy the surrounding land.

NONE, count them, NONE of those claims were correct. Not only were those claims made to journalists - I know because they rang me and quizzed me about them - but also the Harris camp claimed that the Football League would approve their bid by the end of the week in which it was first submitted. Did that happen? No.

Their bid cannot succeed because the Football League have said to BDO that it is Trust or Bust. If the Trust don't succeed, Harris will not be braving the near universal wrath of Pompey fans and taking over - because the club will be liquidated the following day. BDO, (PKF), the court appointed administrator, will report back to the court that it is the Trusts deal or liquidation.

I told David Bick right from the outset that the Harris bid could not succeed, it could only make liquidation more likely. Make no mistake, without the Harris bid, Portpin have no case. With it, they have a tiny chance. If Keith Harris cares about Pompey he can immediately secure the clubs future by withdrawing his bid. He cannot own Pompey, he can only destroy it.

[Milton End]

It was always about now that Messrs Chanrai and Bishop would attempt a further approach - around one week before the court hearing.

My guess is that the Pompey Supporters Trust are not surprised by the announcement, which appears to peddle many of the same misleading half-truths of their previous bid.

Along with many on this Board, I wish the Trust every success at the legal hearing next week.

[rumourmonger]

Which bit of No does this guy not get ??

I know he's attempting to muddy the waters but really ? Does he not believe that people are just gonna see through this like a string vest ?