[Archived] Rovers Takeover

[BRFCS Content]

Published: Saturday, 2 October 2010

Takeover Saga Draws Near Completion

by Kamy

The long-drawn-out takeover saga is, according to sources, drawing to a conclusion, with a decision possible within the next two weeks.

BRFCS believe that the identity of the mystery bidders is the "Mahindra Group". Mahindra is a huge company based in India but it has interests all over the world which include sporting interests. The group has an annual turnover of $6 billion dollars.

The Mahindra Group is among the top 10 industrial houses in India. It is the market leader in multi-utility vehicles in India and made a milestone entry into the passenger car sector with the Logan. Mahindra & Mahindra is the only Indian company among the top tractor brands in the world.

The Group has a leading presence in key sectors of the Indian economy, including financial services, trade, retail and logistics, automotive components, after-market, information technology and infrastructure development.

BRFCS believe that Mahindra is the mystery bidder who has been trying to purchase Rovers for the last four weeks. This information has not been confirmed, but a spokesperson for Mahindra has told BRFCS that "they are unable to comment on this matter at present".

In the meantime, Syed Ali is continuing with his due diligence and sources have indicated that he has made very good progress over the last week or so. A spokesperson for Mr Ali has asked for fans to remain patient, as a hugely complex financial decision is involved and it takes time for these types of deals to be concluded. There has been speculation earlier this week that Mr Ali was also looking at Everton as an alternative to Rovers. This rumour has neither been confirmed nor denied by Mr Ali's team.

Meanwhile, Saurin Shah remains in the hunt to purchase Rovers and his representatives have confirmed that they have held more talks with Rovers representatives over the last few weeks. However, Mr Shah has not as yet reached the stage of due diligence whereby a fee of £250,000 is payable.

All evidence seems to suggest that a decision on whether Rovers will be sold will be made very soon.

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Updated 3 October 2010, 08:20

[Uddersfelt Blue]

Thanks Kamy,

Hope this is resolved soon.

[bringdunnback]

Cheers kamy, interestimg stuff, but being the pessimist I am I don't see a takeover happening soon. I do believe that one is on the cards within the next year or two but for now I think we will have to wait. Prove me wrong.....please.

[philipl]

I have had contact from Kamy who has asked me to say he could be wrong about Mahindra despite pointers going in their direction. They have chosen not to deny the rumour despite having had opportunities to do so.

[Stuart]

Philip, what do you make of this?

Old news?

[Glenn]

We're trying to break down the transfer talk into it's constituent parts, to make things a little easier to follow. So, here's an Ali Syed thread.

[chaddyrovers]

Here is Mahindra group website

http://www.mahindra....t_atglance.html

from looking on the website, they could be a very good onwers if they are trying to buy the club. Mahindra has been going since 1945. I think they would be excellent owners judging by the website and their business interest which they is alot of them.

[Tom]

This is confusing now, been out of the country for ten days and had hoped things would be sorted by now.

Has the news of this Mahindra group been out for a while or is this totally new?

[chaddyrovers]

This is confusing now, been out of the country for ten days and had hoped things would be sorted by now.

Has the news of this Mahindra group been out for a while or is this totally new?

Totally new. only today has this come out. not miss much in 10 days. everything has been quiet!

[LeChuck]

That should cover it, nothing else to add here really.

[yoda]

I have visited a few of the Mahindra plants in India and met some of the directors.

Also been to a few parties where one of the attendees was a supplier to the group and used to live near the Golden Cup in the 60's and went to Rovers games in the time has was in Blackburn.

Very profesional company.

Could do worse.

[philipl]

We can stop referring to mystery man now but what bit of Mahindra is involved, what their motivation is and what their offer is remain mysteries. They are closing down their Indian football club Mahindra United saying they cannot make profits from it but that they are NOT exiting from football. Mahindra are big in IT and telecoms systems and have had a JV with BT for many years- Mahindra Technology is 39% owned by BT.

[philipl]

Lechuck is going to be surprised then! Andy Cryer's blog gives the game away if you read it to the end.

Syed is in the lead despite the emergence of the $6bn Mahindra Group and there have been plenty of things happening behind the scenes which could make a conclusion to this process closer than I thought likely.

Philip, what do you make of this?

Old news?

I was surprised how empty that piece in the Daily Telegraph is. Makes me wonder if it is part 1 of...

It basically says WGA was closed down in Bahrain because they grew too much if we are to treat the story at face value.

Worth pointing out that WGA's accounts received a clean audit opinion (and presumably BDO the auditors had checked that WGA did have a license to undertake its sole business activity) and had been lodged with the Bahrain authorities for months before any questions got asked. This raises questions about Bahrain's ability to regulate a financial services sector.

[Brfcrule1]

Hi Kamy,

great to see you back keep the interesting and informative posts coming. In your opinion which group do you think the trustees are angling towards? thanks as always for your information. Hope things are alright with you.

[Hughesy]

1st thing to check, do they have a wiki page...........THEY DO!!!! WOO HOOO - MUST BE the real deal then!!

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Belive it when I see it!!

[tony gale's mic]

Interesting.

The Mahindra Group are a huge company with a big reputation in India. Their track record and pedigree isn't something which is up for debate (although their current chairman has been recently convicted for his role in the Bhopal tragedy).

Whilst many of us, including myself, doubt Ali Syed's supposed billionaire credentials, if they did turn out to be true there was someone who, at face value at least, was speaking like he could potentially be a benefactor.

The Mahindra Group on the other hand whilst being of well publicised pedigree, are much more likely to want to use us as an investment and may be a lot less likely to throw hundreds of millions of pounds at us (if everything Ali Syed was telling us was indeed true). They are very different from the Trust in many ways but they are a big company ($7.1 billion) with interests in many different areas - the Trust are effectively an £800 million company with interests in many different areas; and whilst the Mahindra group is a much bigger company it also has more wide reaching interests too. However they will be owners who will actually want to own us which would make a big difference one would think.

[Hughesy]

Key questions have to be - Why do they want a football club? Whats their master plan? And how much Liquid cash do they have to spend on us?

[Tom]

We can stop referring to mystery man now but what bit of Mahindra is involved, what their motivation is and what their offer is remain mysteries. They are closing down their Indian football club Mahindra United saying they cannot make profits from it but that they are NOT exiting from football. Mahindra are big in IT and telecoms systems and have had a JV with BT for many years- Mahindra Technology is 39% owned by BT.

Damn I didn't realise it was the same Mahindra, I work for BT so deal with the tech guys a lot as they sort all our computing issues.

[Steve Moss]

Key questions have to be - Why do they want a football club? Whats their master plan? And how much Liquid cash do they have to spend on us?

Same reason as Syed and Shah, I imagine. There appears to be a perception that Rovers can ap into both the native Indian Blackburners (to fill seats) and that the brand will go over well in India and we can "expand" into that [admittedly huge] market. I have no idea if it is true, but people with cash apparently think its an option so who am I to argue. I would love it to become a reality, so fingers are crossed.

[BRFCS Content]

Minor edits carried out to original article posted above, including correction of due diligence fee, and addition of headline and date of publication.

Apologies for the inconvenience.

BRFCS News Team

[Mr. E]

We can stop referring to mystery man now but what bit of Mahindra is involved, what their motivation is and what their offer is remain mysteries. They are closing down their Indian football club Mahindra United saying they cannot make profits from it but that they are NOT exiting from football. Mahindra are big in IT and telecoms systems and have had a JV with BT for many years- Mahindra Technology is 39% owned by BT.

wait, what?

They are closing down a football club because it's not "profitable"...and now they want to own Rovers? What happens when they realize our shirts aren't the #1 seller in any market, that we don't attract 50 000+ weekly crowds, and that the notion of making profits of Rovers has long been confirmed as impossible?

Mr. Syed is the "fan" who presumably doesn't expect profits...trust him or not, at least there's hope there.

[Stuart]

Just seen the other thread. Apologies.

[Stuart]

It also says that WGA was set up solely to look after Sayed's personal wealth. So is Sayed bidding for the club or WGA?

Seems an odd situation - particularly to those unschooled in these matters.

[Wing Wizard Windy Miller]

It also says that WGA was set up solely to look after Sayed's personal wealth. So is Sayed bidding for the club or WGA?

Seems an odd situation - particularly to those unschooled in these matters.

From what I've read. It is clear WGA do have funds and it is pretty apparent the 'funds' have come from Syed. The business would show some sort of profit even if he stuck the billion in a post office account! I think the issue with WGA is possibly around integrity ie the growth they have claimed to have made in the last year having no tangible assets (though I'm only surmising this.) From the outside they seem to be claiming they grew the businesss from $53000 into a billion dollar.

company.

It does however appear that they are trying to purchase considerable assets for example the Irish Builders but these can't be turning a profit as yet.

Syed stated earlier it would be his personal money invested - so it would probably take a third of his company cash or perhaps he has further funds elsewhere?

Question is; If all his money is in WGA then can he really afford to throw a third of his wealth at Rovers?

I am sure that there are many more educated in the area of finance than me who could perhaps clarify this better (Help Philip!)

[Stuart]

Question is; If all his money is in WGA then can he really afford to throw a third of his wealth at Rovers?

To do that he would need to see himself as a Jack Walker: a fan prepared to put his money where his heart is - which seems to good to be true. Or looking to make a profit - which seems wholly unlikely unless he sees massive growth potential in the Indian market. I'd love to see his business model!