[Archived] Rovers Might Have Been Sold?

[sleepyjack]

British football Premiership.

[bringdunnback]

This is ridiculous, I come on here to read about potential takeover news from people and their opinions and were getting petty little arguments that no-one gives two craps about, seriously get over yourselves.

[CrazyIvan]

This is ridiculous, I come on here to read about potential takeover news from people and their opinions and were getting petty little arguments that no-one gives two craps about, seriously get over yourselves.

Exactly!!!

[PAFELL]

You really are stupid.

For the umpteenth time.

The competition is not the "The Football Association Premier League"

The competition is called the Barclays Premier League.

Amazingly, it even has a website of the same name.

http://www.premierleague.com/page/Home/0,,12306,00.html

Do they teach basic comprehension in US schools ?

I thought the topic of this thread was about any possible takeover of Rovers.

This is ridiculous, I come on here to read about potential takeover news from people and their opinions and were getting petty little arguments that no-one gives two craps about, seriously get over yourselves.

Agreed, it really is pathetic.

[Brfcrule1]

bring back dunn wrote:

This is ridiculous, I come on here to read about potential takeover news from people and their opinions and were getting petty little arguments that no-one gives two craps about, seriously get over yourselves.

you took the words right out of my mouth as has been said this a thread about potential rovers takeovers not about what the competition is called so if people who stay on topic bet no even saw there is nothing about a takeover in the paper but people would argue about the name of the competition at the end of the day it is the Barclays premier league let's leave it at that and it seems as though there might be some other interest in rovers for those who want to know according to Nicko let's hope this comes to something

[American]

Organisation is correct as well ;-)

It is indeed the commercial title, but regardless of a sponsor teams do not compete for anything with the word "limited" in the title!

Im gonna miss my bus, too nervous to sleep!

Actually, no, the correct is organization or organisation. Oxford agrees with me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_spelling_differences#-ise.2C_-ize

[trueblue]

Back on topic please guys !

[philipl]

American and one or two others have asked me to post what I know. I hadn't intended doing so but all of this stuff is just a Google away (there is more but what is private stays private)...

It really doesn't look good for those terribly nice chaps from Plainfield. All this stuff is in the public domain:

Fortune Magazine So from managing $5 billion before the crash, Plainfield’s down to $560 million (or less- see below) plus $2 billion held captive until 2012 from investors who want their money back.

Taken from this public blog:

"A copy of Plainfield’s end of 2009 financials, reviewed by this reporter, says the two non-gated funds only had $388 million in assets. The New York Post reported that Plainfield lost its CFO, Robert DeSantis, last week so maybe he decided to bail before investors filed lawsuits that could uncover the assets are not exactly the value Plainfield says they have.

"Plainfield’s co-founder, Niv Harizman, had left the hedge fund to start one of his own called Tyto Capital Partners. A move that leaves Holmes without his right hand tough guy negotiator. According to Harizman’s blog, he served as a First Lieutenant in military intelligence in the Israel Defense Force. A few of Plainfield’s borrowers told this reporter, he’s been the strong man who dealt with those that couldn’t pay on their hard money, high-interest loans. It’s this type of lending that has the attention of the Manhattan District Attorney who is investigating the fund.

"With the fund is being investigated for criminal violations involving possible lending fraud, which was first reported by Fortune in late January, and is suffering an apparent drain on cash flow — the question investors are asking is will Plainfield be forced into bankruptcy before they get their money back."

According to the New York Post:

Plainfield has denied the claims, but the accusations have reportedly attracted the attention of the Manhattan District Attorney's office and Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal. Rob Sieden, whose firm, Confidential Security & Investigations conducted an investigation into Plainfield on behalf of disgruntled borrowers, said he was recently interviewed by the Securities and Exchange Commission about what he had discovered.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/pasture_land_for_plainfield_UVU3uOeontSlFzQsSfAuXN#ixzz0jSfUO8SM

This is not a new problem:

Plainfield Freezes Redemptions

Posted by Bess Levin, Nov 06, 2008, 4:54pm

Plainfield Special Situations Master Fund, a $5 billion credit fund run by Plainfield Asset Management, apparently notified investors on a conference call yesterday that there have been over $1.6 billion in redemptions, and sorry, but the firm has supposedly decided to create a Special Purpose Vehicle which will liquidate redeemed assets over a period of years. Investors were given a choice to rescind their redemptions by November 30 or be issued interests in the new SPV.

So Dan Williams would have thrown Rovers to the mercy of that lot. And don't think that Plainfield would "only" have taken a charge over what they put into Rovers. We would be facing the prospect of a West Ham Icelandic situation before too long if they had become involved.

[Iceman]

If all that is correct Philip, then its a good thing we avoided that bunch. If they had bought us, and gone bust, then Ewood and Brockhall could all have been sold.

[Iceman]

There won't be anything in the paper, but there has been a small development today.

The Arab [or the one I know about] has just clinched a major business deal in his homeland today and will be devoting his time to that and won't be buying a football club.

Now there's a surprise...another talker.

I won't break someone's confidence but there may be a bit of movement involving a rival bidder. Some people were over at the Birmingham City game.

And, no, they weren't American exiles or whatever.

Puffed out with this one.

Why is everybody wanting an American owner? This rival bidder, is he from Hong Kong Nicko. Ive heard whispers that the guy wants to rival Carson Yeung(sp), and thats why he was over to look at things.

[nicko]

Why is everybody wanting an American owner? This rival bidder, is he from Hong Kong Nicko. Ive heard whispers that the guy wants to rival Carson Yeung(sp), and thats why he was over to look at things.

I think the Hong Kong thing comes from the Dan Williams direction. Not so sure about the chances of that one.

There does seem to be a group hanging around...they went to the Birmingham game...but they have been around for a few weeks now and have yet to sort things out...and in the meantime Rothschilds tried the Arab I heard about.

The bottom line is this.

Rovers is an attractive buy at the current price.

If there was a serious bidder - and just some dreamboat or professional tyre-kicker - then a deal could be done.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

If there was a serious bidder - and just some dreamboat or professional tyre-kicker - then a deal could be done.

Dont you mean AND NOT just some?

[Paul]

Dont you mean AND NOT just some?

One would hope that's the case.

Good post philip. Thanks

[nicko]

Dont you mean AND NOT just some?

Yes.

[philipl]

The Plainfield problems certainly triggered off a media feeding frenzy over in the States:

New York Times comments about them being left behind with hard to value illiquid assets.

The Wall Street Journal on the legal investigation.

Business Week

Those were in January but there was another burst of coverage last week when the press reported that just 25 staff (down from 160) were relocating from offices that were costing $7m a year to the space rented for disaster recovery.

[doctorryan]

Here philipl - the WSJ article requires a subscription (for most anyway), so here is Google cache's copy of the full article:Click here

[philipl]

Here philipl - the WSJ article requires a subscription (for most anyway), so here is Google cache's copy of the full article:Click here

Thanks- I had forgotten that I was inside the paywall.

From a Rovers' perspective, this would have been the most alarming aspect had Plainfield been involved:

Plainfield Asset Management LLC, based in Greenwich, Conn., has been in litigation in federal and state courts with several companies it took stakes in who claimed Plainfield in recent years engaged in "predatory lending" schemes in order to seize control of their assets for a fraction of their true value. Plainfield has denied wrongdoing. Some of the suits have been settled.

[doctorryan]

No worries.

[Paul]

The Plainfield problems certainly triggered off a media feeding frenzy over in the States:

New York Times comments about them being left behind with hard to value illiquid assets.

The Wall Street Journal on the legal investigation.

Business Week

Those were in January but there was another burst of coverage last week when the press reported that just 25 staff (down from 160) were relocating from offices that were costing $7m a year to the space rented for disaster recover

Philip for this very simple bear's brain.....Plainfield is an investment company / vehicle the value of whose assets has declined considerably recently? Some of the "deals" (for want of the correct word) are being investigated by the US authorities and must there be of questionable legality? The company have shed 135 staff out of 160 - around 85%.

Three years after the event we have a newish poster, an ex employee of Plainfield I think, keen to give Rovers fans every detail of the possible takeover in which Plainfield were involved. Am I overly suspicious? My original questions about motivation where never addressed by the poster.

[philipl]

Philip for this very simple bear's brain.....Plainfield is an investment company / vehicle the value of whose assets has declined considerably recently? Some of the "deals" (for want of the correct word) are being investigated by the US authorities and must there be of questionable legality? The company have shed 135 staff out of 160 - around 85%.

Three years after the event we have a newish poster, an ex employee of Plainfield I think, keen to give Rovers fans every detail of the possible takeover in which Plainfield were involved. Am I overly suspicious? My original questions about motivation where never addressed by the poster.

There are quite a few unanswered questions.

One stream of legal issues seem to focus on Plainfield lending money then using unfair terms to seize the assets of the borrower at completely knocked down values. It must be bad for them to be settling out of Court and have the SEC and prosecutors in two States on to them.

Of course, all this stuff is media reporting so might not be accurate. However, enough time has elapsed since January for Plainfield to have got their own law suits going to counter these numerous reports but as far as I can see they are just taking it all on the chin. The profile of the Israeli guy doesn't seem to suggest he is a shrinking violet.

[S15]

Y

A

W

N

!

!

!

This thread has served it's purpose, surely? All of a sudden it's turned back into the 'Phlip Show,' despite the fact that it's become clear that he cuts and pastes an in proportionately strong viewpoint by cutting and pasting google articles together.

Remove all the BS, and this thread is about two pages long, and whilst rivercider's information is very interesting, it's not changed anything. How about we just knock it on the head for a bit rather than allowing the thread to be Philips hourly chance to try and climb out the everest sized abyss he ended up in in the 'respectability' terms on this topic?

[PAFELL]

Y

A

W

N

!

!

!

This thread has served it's purpose, surely? All of a sudden it's turned back into the 'Phlip Show,' despite the fact that it's become clear that he cuts and pastes an in proportionately strong viewpoint by cutting and pasting google articles together.

Remove all the BS, and this thread is about two pages long, and whilst rivercider's information is very interesting, it's not changed anything. How about we just knock it on the head for a bit rather than allowing the thread to be Philips hourly chance to try and climb out the everest sized abyss he ended up in in the 'respectability' terms on this topic?

Agreed, this all went off topic a long time ago. It became a look what I know and you don't topic. Nothing about rovers might or are being sold. Planifield etc nothing to do with rovers - maybe they showed interest 3 years ago - therefore history and nothing to do with rovers might have been sold topic.

[thenodrog]

I think it's been quite fascinating. Keep it up everyone.

If you two don't want to read it don't click on it. It's not compulsory you know.

[Jackson]

I, too, am tiring of the persistent inability of a certain poster to remove their head from their own rectum.

[LeChuck]

I didn't want to make a new topic for this, so maybe it can spark some proper discussion back into this thread?

Very interesting BBC article, comparing the regulations of German club ownership to here.

In terms of ticket price vs quality/entertainment, I think the Germans have it better than anyone in Europe...not to mention that they have standing areas too.

Are the majority of clubs over here too far in debt for us to employ a similar system?