[Archived] Takeover / Part Takeover ?

[koi]

Is £60m the new £50m?

[patrickvalery]

The scale of what these people have done to us is summed up perfectly by this. I don't feel anything. No excitement or hope that better times are around the corner. The white knight may just have rocked up and all I can think is Venky's will put too many obstacles in the way it'll be impossible to happen. And for what reason? Because they're bloody minded.

Good on the two Ians for persisting with this and it's reassuring someone might be waiting in the wings. But I still believe rovers will have to hit rock bottom (administration) before the club changes hands.

[ABBEY]

When it all comes out in the wash, I think we will see that there is 'a story behind the story'.

I am a bit more confident than most on here and believe that there is a 70% chance of this happening.

My memory might be playing tricks here but I think Ian Battersby and Nicko go back a good few years hence the publicity Nicko might be giving this.

this means 5 % then

[Wing Wizard Windy Miller]

On paper it looks our best shot of turning things around. That said, there is no mention of what happens to the debt or what happens if we don't achieve promotion in the next couple of years. £60 million seems a lot but if a third is reinvested in the team - the other £40 million will surely just cover losses for the next couple of years.

The saving grace is that the club will be back in the hands of Blackburn fans. Certainly a project we should be getting behind as there is little or no chance of anyone else riding to our rescue with our best intentions at heart.

[bob fleming]

Firstly, whatever I think about this won't make the slightest bit of difference. I can only give my opinion.If a proposal has indeed been put to Venky's and they like it, it may well go through. If they don't they'll chuck it in the bin. Nothing much we can do about it just as there wasn't when the Walker Trust sold to Venky's.

My opinion though for what it's worth is that the proposed deal is far too problematic to be taken seriously. I shouldn't really have to state the obvious but here goes anyway:

Why don't they want to buy the Club outright?

Who are their backers?

What do their backers expect out of any deal?

Who pays the bills?

How much is available for investment in the team? Is that a one off or available in seasons 2,3, 4 and 5 as well?

What if we don't go up in years 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5? Will their backers pull the plug?

Do they expect Venky's to sit on a 100m plus debt owing to them interest free whilst their backers demand a rate of return?

It all sounds completely pie in the sky to me. It's not long since one of the two Ian's said the Club was completely unsellable in its present form so I don't know what's changed. Well I do, there's a lot more money available in the Premiership now so they're once again trying to steam into the Club on the cheap and are hoping to hitch a ride on the Premiership gravy train using borrowed money.

Wouldn't you actually say that about fans wanting to swap owners who can afford to pay the bills (regardless of how badly they've run us in the past) for owners who can't?

Strewth Rev! Have you done your due diligence - sounds like it!

Tell you what lets just leave things as they are then shall we? Carry on with a one man board, no cash, no players, no manager, no season tickets for sale and negligent owners.

The multi billionaire who lives on our street at number 14 doesn't seem interested. Perhaps if we could all nip round to our billionaire neighbours and see if they've got some free cash? Cause from where I'm sitting the club is facing a slow death, God knows how many will be turning up next season.

I'd summise that the reason they aren't looking for total control is 1. They've tried that approach before and it didn't get air time - from the little we know it would appear that this might offer them a structured exit (go away quietly) 2. The level of debt involved (which is circa £100m and differs somewhat I would suggest to "once again trying to steam into the Club on the cheap" - if anything I'd suggest it makes the club exceptionally unattractive).

Why announce this to the press? To put the pressure on them possibly. It's not easy.

[DanielMB]

Surely we won't have a new manager before this takeover talk is over?

[Athlete]

Surely we won't have a new manager before this takeover talk is over?

Highly likely not

[dallydally]

It is in today's S** newspaper with not much meat on the bones , but Seneca will put 60 million into the club and Venky's will not have to fund it any further. Venky's will keep 49% with Seneca making arrangements for the running of the club. Seneca confident that they can turn the club around therefore making Venky's 49% worth a hell of a lot more then their 99.9% is currently worth .

Will venky's accept a controlled exit? who knows, but questions need to be asked if they don't,

What are they afraid of an outside investor finding ?

Why are they happy to let this historic football club rot rather than face up to their destruction?

Why were they happy to go along with an advisor and associated scumbags if like they have said they had no contract with them and yet keep at bay anybody with a genuine interest in helping the club?

Can't see it in the Sun?

Do you have a link?

[islander200]

Can't see it in the Sun?

Do you have a link?

Its in the paper don't think it's in the online version.Nothing much more in it than what perth said and what has been said on here

[Pedro]

Anyone who would rather say "no" to having fans as shareholders and let Venkys carry on should hand themselves over to the authorities for sectioning. Absolute head the balls.

So long as it is financially viable.

[ABBEY]

It's Nixon ... NOWT will happen

[JBiz]

Be good to see a screen shot, If anyone sees a sun, because believe me I ain't buying that!

It's the hope that kills you. I've seen a world where we are back and we all get on

[Roaming Rover]

No idea of this is legit or not but couple of thoughts....

If it was leaked from India maybe it's Venkys putting it out there to see if anyone else is interested and offer more cash / a perceived better deal?

Also I doubt they would have accepted if they had plans to invest even £1 in the playing squad but as the draw bridge seems to have been raised on that, the option of having someone else service the debt and invest in a promotion push to the promised world of mega riches must be something even the Venkys see as beneficial (yes I know this is the venkys were talking about!)

The only way I can see this going through is if the potential new owners humour balaji and make him feel involved so to get his vote!

Then to get Mrs D onside send a lifetimes supply of kitekat to Pune and send ES over for regular but pointless catch up meetings to massage her ego......the other village idiot will just copy whatever the big D does so job done!!!

However as I typed Therapy? Going nowhere came on the iPod.......a sign perhaps....?

[chor808]

Northern Rover ‏@Northern_Rover 1h1 hour ago

Here is @reluctantnicko piece in the sun, unfortunately the paper haven't included match info:

Be good to see a screen shot, If anyone sees a sun, because believe me I ain't buying that!

It's the hope that kills you. I've seen a world where we are back and we all get on

Done.

[koi]

If this was serious I highly doubt either party would want gutter press getting hold it until a deal is sorted, IF our side has gone to Nixon with the story then it's highly likely they've got nowhere and are trying to get some public support.

The fact still remains, whether you like it or not, any new investment has very little room to invest in the squad if we want to keep out of an embargo. It's fine saying there's ways around it but the FA aren't that stupid, to sign off any deal with a new investment they'll want cast-iron guarantees that FFP will not be broken. When you look at the account for Rovers, they're terrible from a trading point of view and it's only going to get worse with the loss of the £6m from next season. Yes, you can argue that the next period is over three years but you could easily blow what's allowed in the first season alone, then where would we be? My advice to those getting all excited is to get some lippy on coz you might as well look pretty whilst getting well and truly f$@!%d.

[Kamy100]

This is an actual bid for the club, not gossip. I have seen the proposal letter and everything that I posted last night was from that proposal letter.

Whether it is successful or not is a completely different matter as Venky's have in the past consistently not engaged with people wanting to buy the club and there is no evidence that they are going to change that stance, but massive credit to Seneca for at least trying.

I am sure that one of the Ian's will comment on all of this within the next few days.

[Earlydoors]

The key to this is it caps Venkys at where they are now rather than having to continue to throw more and more cash in to fund losses. Seneca's expertise in Turnaround is both financial AND operational . They will turn it round as a proper business with proper structure but crucially want to ensure that the cash they bring in goes into the squad and not into previous losses incurred by Venkys.

After all Venkys have said no money for Lambert so assume they are cutting back . Under the Seneca proposal Venkys cut their losses and stand to recoup if Seneca can turn it round. Surely that's a far better situation than at present for everyone?

So the joint entity (51% seneca / 49% Venkys ) will service all current and future debt?

Do you know what the cost of current debt is?

What the expected debt is for coming financial year?

I would guesstimate that to be around 20m

[Kamy100]

I am not an expert on finance so hard to comment and that is why I hope that Seneca will talk about this shortly but my basic understanding is that the proposal is that Venky's relinquish 51% stake in the club, in return Seneca will put £60 million into the club which will be used to turnaround the club and get it challenging for promotion again. The carrot for Venky's is that if we go up then they can sell the remaining 49% and recoup some of the money that they have already put in and they do not need to put any further money into the club. At the moment the way that they are running the club means that they are never likely to get any of the money that they have put in and are required to continuously put more money in.

Rovers are a mismanaged club at all levels, so at the moment running costs are at £20 million but you would hope that someone with the experience that Seneca have would come in and sort out the way the club is operating and manage to bring that figure down significantly.

[DE.]

It's nice that somebody still cares, and quite frankly I don't see a better offer appearing for Venky's at this juncture, but I have a bad feeling it'll end up being "as you were".

[Mani]

I am not an expert on finance so hard to comment and that is why I hope that Seneca will talk about this shortly but my basic understanding is that the proposal is that Venky's relinquish 51% stake in the club, in return Seneca will put £60 million into the club which will be used to turnaround the club and get it challenging for promotion again. The carrot for Venky's is that if we go up then they can sell the remaining 49% and recoup some of the money that they have already put in and they do not need to put any further money into the club. At the moment the way that they are running the club means that they are never likely to get any of the money that they have put in and are required to continuously put more money in.

Rovers are a mismanaged club at all levels, so at the moment running costs are at £20 million but you would hope that someone with the experience that Seneca have would come in and sort out the way the club is operating and manage to bring that figure down significantly.

They've never been willing to deal before. But you have to believe that the prospect of this deal in terms of the little bit we know will be appealing to them...no other prospect of getting any money back.

[den]

Firstly, whatever I think about this won't make the slightest bit of difference. I can only give my opinion.If a proposal has indeed been put to Venky's and they like it, it may well go through. If they don't they'll chuck it in the bin. Nothing much we can do about it just as there wasn't when the Walker Trust sold to Venky's.

My opinion though for what it's worth is that the proposed deal is far too problematic to be taken seriously. I shouldn't really have to state the obvious but here goes anyway:

Why don't they want to buy the Club outright?

Who are their backers?

What do their backers expect out of any deal?

Who pays the bills?

How much is available for investment in the team? Is that a one off or available in seasons 2,3, 4 and 5 as well?

What if we don't go up in years 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5? Will their backers pull the plug?

Do they expect Venky's to sit on a 100m plus debt owing to them interest free whilst their backers demand a rate of return?

It all sounds completely pie in the sky to me. It's not long since one of the two Ian's said the Club was completely unsellable in its present form so I don't know what's changed. Well I do, there's a lot more money available in the Premiership now so they're once again trying to steam into the Club on the cheap and are hoping to hitch a ride on the Premiership gravy train using borrowed money.

Wouldn't you actually say that about fans wanting to swap owners who can afford to pay the bills (regardless of how badly they've run us in the past) for owners who can't?

If you don't know the answers to your questions, how can you come to a resounding "no to the two Ian's"?

If you do know the answers then tell us please Rev.

[yoda]

Sign 51% of your business over to me, if I make a go of it and make plenty money I'll tip a bit back your way

Doh,

my business is not in the sh1t, if it was I am big enough to get help.

Have you ever watched the Dragons Den

[den]

Have you ever watched the Dragons Den

On the game of thrones Yoda? Yeah, awesome.

[BlueMonday]

I'll tell you what, If Venkys don't go for this there should be riots in B'Burn.

If Venkys decide to maintain the status quo of debt, no ambition and no plan to get us out of this, then those finding excuses for them should hang their heads in shame.

[booth]

Sign 51% of your business over to me, if I make a go of it and make plenty money I'll tip a bit back your way

Put £60m in and I'd be happy to.