Just testing public reaction ?

[blademark]

I'm not going to comment on the actual 'apparent' buy-out, but one thing i dont fully understand is why this statement was put out in the first place. It makes no sense to tell us that negotiations are taking place. We are no better off for knowing. Nothing changes, if anything it has undermined the current stability and wellbeing of the club with all the wild speculation. So why not wait until it is, or isn't, concluded ?
The only reason I can think of is to test public opinion. Maybe one or both parties believe that this news will not be well received, and they wanted to know just how strong the feeling might be ?

 

[Champagneblade]

It could also be a precurser to the Prince walking away.

Talks unable to reach satisfactory conclusion, Prince gets his pound back!

 

[sheffielder]

It could also be a precurser to the Prince waling away.

Talks unable to reach satisfactory conclusion, Prince gets hos pound back!

A mate of mine said this last night. Maybe this is McCabe chucking the Prince under the bus. Put up or walk away. Another is that the prince gets to save face by saying that a deal couldn’t be done and gets to sell up

 

[INTAKE BLADE]

Time will tell, hopefully it’s in our favour whatever the outcome.

 

[Pierre's PC]

Certainly the timing and manner of the announcement is a bit strange.

There's obviously some wrangling going on behind the scenes and probably has been for a while, it's too early to speculate with a degree of certainty but I don't think McCabe would leave us in the hands of some despot.

My biggest problem is with the hand-wringers on social media, Saudi this, human rights that. There are obviously problems in that country and some of it's laws and traditions are simply medieval in nature, however, as i said last evening - did these people refuse to celebrate when we were promoted or giving new and improved contracts to our best players with the obvious help of this "dirty" money?

No? I thought not.

 

[derfblade.3]

It's just a case of "Buy it all....or go away" from our Kev. I would say he is without doubt getting fed up with not seeing the promised investment from Princey .

 

[Shirty Blade]

Certainly the timing and manner of the announcement is a bit strange.

There's obviously some wrangling going on behind the scenes and probably has been for a while, it's too early to speculate with a degree of certainty but I don't think McCabe would leave us in the hands of some despot.

My biggest problem is with the hand-wringers on social media, Saudi this, human rights that. There are obviously problems in that country and some of it's laws and traditions are simply medieval in nature, however, as i said last evening - did these people refuse to celebrate when we were promoted or giving new and improved contracts to our best players with the obvious help of this "dirty" money?

No? I thought not.

I thought that the Price made his money through Saudis wiping their arses. Is this why some people consider it to be 'dirty money'?

 

[blademark]

Another possibility is that it is an open advertisement to anyone else to get in quick and buy the club ?

 

[Davalon]

The bit I don't get, and I'm no businessman or accountant, is that if the Prince is exercising an option, there must have been an agreement in place up front that KM was comfortable with.

What 'negotiating' is going on specifically as I thought the point of an option was to buy for an agreed price in the future?

 

[Sean Thornton]

The bit I don't get, and I'm no businessman or accountant, is that if the Prince is exercising an option, there must have been an agreement in place up front that KM was comfortable with.

What 'negotiating' is going on specifically as I thought the point of an option was to buy for an agreed price in the future?

Shareholders agreement.

Wouldn't necessarily have an agreed price as values change.

 

[BornOnShorehamStreet]

I'm not going to comment on the actual 'apparent' buy-out, but one thing i dont fully understand is why this statement was put out in the first place. It makes no sense to tell us that negotiations are taking place. We are no better off for knowing. Nothing changes, if anything it has undermined the current stability and wellbeing of the club with all the wild speculation. So why not wait until it is, or isn't, concluded ?

Tell that to the anti-Brexit leftist elite in the BBC News

 

[metalblade]

What would the fans rather have an Official club statement or one of Wilder's mates spreading worrying rumours whether with the best of intentions or not ? Once the rumour came out the club had little option to put out a statement or they would be hung for not being open with the fanbase.

 

[Davalon]

Shareholders agreement.

Sorry for being dumb but what's that entail?

 

[Davalon]

What would the fans rather have an Official club statement or one of Wilder's mates spreading worrying rumours whether with the best of intentions or not ? Once the rumour came out the club had little option to put out a statement or they would be hung for not being open with the fanbase.

Don't know the reasons for the statement but that was my comment the other day.

Someone who clearly will know stuff with plenty of social media followers drops a few worrying sound bites and we've seen the reaction on here and FB/Twitter.

At least this time something has come of what he's intimated quite quickly, although whether the club has reacted to the rumblings who knows.

I can't help but feel this has come at a bad time after such a fantastic first few months of the season.

Having dropped out of the play offs and with the realistic possibility we may not get back in, with the first signs at Wolves of a few fans getting restless, and now this uncertainty, I hope we don't see any further deterioration if results don't improve quickly.

 

[Sean Thornton]

Sorry for being dumb but what's that entail?

A myriad of things in this case I would imagine, but basically a way forward in case of one wanting to buy the other out, death, sale. Simply, a blueprint for an orderly end to the business relationship.

It could, as some have alluded to, have had a term where the Prince would take full control at some point or options where either could offer to buy the other one out. Generally an offer from one would mean the other can make a counter offer.

It will be a much more complicated legal document than that though, but is common practice in business, not some voodoo dreamt up by our owners.

 

[cahill]

Doesn’t sound good to me, reading some of the above. A guy, Unitedite his whole life, even born on Shoreham Street, leaving the future of the club to a Saudi Prince, who doesn’t seem to have any engagement with fans, and lives a life of ease and untold luxury. Seems to be the new face of football. Reading some of the various scenarios outlined above, doesn’t make me feel any better

 

[fireblade]

Reading between the lines, and purely my own take on things. When KM wanted an investor on board and was negotiating with The Prince, an option to buy clause could have been used as a bit of a sweetener to get the deal over the line. Other clauses such as having to purchase the stadium, training ground etc. may have been inserted as a protection against a hostile/unwanted takeover, where McCabe can set a fee out of The Princes reach and therefore retain control (50/50).
It seems as though the joint ownership has run its course and there is now a power struggle. It would be interesting to know who sanctioned the release of the 'statement'.

 

[Davalon]

A myriad of things in this case I would imagine, but basically a way forward in case of one wanting to buy the other out, death, sale. Simply, a blueprint for an orderly end to the business relationship.

It could, as some have alluded to, have had a term where the Prince would take full control at some point or options where either could offer to buy the other one out. Generally an offer from one would mean the other can make a counter offer.

It will be a much more complicated legal document than that though, but is common practice in business, not some voodoo dreamt up by our owners.

Ok thanks for the explanation.

Could this then feasibly see a scenario where the Prince takes over the football club but KM still retains land/buildings that he rents us? Or is it only realistic where 1 would take complete control?

Sorry for the questions but I'm no expert on these matters and you seem as clued up as anyone in this area on here.

 

[DaleHillBlade]

I know very little about such matters, but maybe it's something to do with Company rules when changes being considered.

Am probably wrong.

 

[Whiston Blade]

The bit I don't get, and I'm no businessman or accountant, is that if the Prince is exercising an option, there must have been an agreement in place up front that KM was comfortable with.

It wouldn't surprise me to find out that McCabe and HRH had an agreement in place that if the Prince hit certain "targets" or conditions then this would activate some sort of buy-out option. Basically, McCabe was testing the Prince and if he managed to activate this buy-out clause then he was good enough for McCabe.

 

[Sean Thornton]

Ok thanks for the explanation.

Could this then feasibly see a scenario where the Prince takes over the football club but KM still retains land/buildings that he rents us? Or is it only realistic where 1 would take complete control?

Sorry for the questions but I'm no expert on these matters and you seem as clued up as anyone in this area on here.

It is what it is, we really don't know but Foxy intimates that negotiations are still taking place. That could just be over the real estate. You'd expect HRH to want the whole shebang, he's out on a limb otherwise.

I did wonder if McCabe would make a counter offer but Jim Phipps has him on his way out.

 

[Sean Thornton]

I know very little about such matters, but maybe it's something to do with Company rules when changes being considered.

Am probably wrong.

The announcement? Generally a requirement for publicly quoted companies.

 

[Liverpool blade]

I think we just need to see what happens in the future?. We can only speculate as to what's going on behind the scenes. It might be that McCabe is forcing the prince to open his wallet. One thing for certain is that McCabe loves the club too much just to sell it on a whim!!. I like to think that he's been very astute in forcing the prince to put the money in or ship out!!. Unfortunately we'll never know what goes in the boardroom!. This has always been the case and will never change!. Utb

 

[WORKSOPBLADE]

The announcement? Generally a requirement for publicly quoted companies.

Indeed but I don’t think we’re publicly quoted anymore so no requirement needed.

PR only I think. My take, given KM’s comments recently that investment is needed is that the matter will be resolved fairly soon i.e. before next season starts.

 

[Blade56]

Maybe this is McCabe chucking the Prince under the bus.

Ooooooo, this could have legs! Kev did say in the Monday night Q&A that the ownership model wasn't working. If he was fighting off HRH he might not have been so forthcoming, sounded a bit more like an aggressive answer than consolatory!

I think we should erect a boxing ring int car park and settle this like gentlemen.

Or someone start a poll thread HRH or Kev, pick yer sides.

 

[Sean Thornton]

Indeed but I don’t think we’re publicly quoted anymore so no requirement needed.

PR only I think. My take, given KM’s comments recently that investment is needed is that the matter will be resolved fairly soon i.e. before next season starts.

It's only SU Ltd that was ever a Plc, so as you say, PR as we're talking about BL and the football club.

 

[Blade56]

It's only SU Ltd that was ever a Plc, so as you say, PR as we're talking about BL and the football club.

Lighten up Sean, speculate start a few rumours after all you are head of the Crab Inc publicity machine

 

[Sean Thornton]

Lighten up Sean, speculate start a few rumours after all you are head of the Crab Inc publicity machine

One lucky guess ...

 

[ThatJa]

I've seen a lot of posts about how Prince hasn't put a penny in so far (Even though he has, he wiped our debt, and helped us stay afloat) so imagine what he's gonna be like owning 100% etc etc.. in my opinion I believe McCabe has been holding us back (I've said this a lot in the past). Put yourself in Prince's shoes, you're 50% owner of a club, why would you put money in if your co-owner doesn't match it? Lets say Prince wanted to put 10milion in (as was rumoured) but McCabe says "I don't want to match that" (as was rumoured) why as a 50% owner would you still want to put 10million of your money in? Lets say Prince DID put 10million in and McCabe didn't.. and that got us to the prem where we'd make £300,000,000 just for going up, instantly McCabe has £150,000,000 all from Princes 10million pound investment, and Prince has lost £150,000,000 at the same time..

It makes absolutely no sense to put money in when your other 50% owner isn't. Maybe the Prince does want to invest, but only as a 100% owner?

The statement makes what McCabe said at the interview the other night make sense now. "I expect more from the Prince going forward"

 

[SwissBlade]

What would the fans rather have an Official club statement or one of Wilder's mates spreading worrying rumours whether with the best of intentions or not ? Once the rumour came out the club had little option to put out a statement or they would be hung for not being open with the fanbase.

Exactly this.

I’ve read some interesting thoughts/ speculation/ conspiracy in the last week or so but the fact is nobody outside of the ownership circle knows what’s going on.

One thing I’m sure about is that McCabe will try to act in the proper way.