Tip of the Ice Berg II - Updated - It is all a load of bollocks!

An update to the thread Boggers posted early.

I have however highlighted a paragraph that greatly concerns me - namely where the funding from the buy out is coming from - it all sounds a load of bollocks to me.



AMIR Khan will stage fights at the Macron Stadium should the Sports Shield consortium complete their takeover at Wanderers – but that could just be the tip of the iceberg, The Bolton News understands.

The Bolton welterweight, a two-time world champion, is NOT thought to be one of the investors in the group looking to take control of the club from owner Eddie Davies.

But sources have confirmed the 28-year-old has agreed to back their bid, with plans to bring a big-money fight to his home town in the near future.

And Khan’s could be the first of a number of “X Factor” names which the consortium hope can reignite interest in the club, and more importantly, raise cash to uphold running costs of around £10million a year.

Talks continued this morning - with former striker Dean Holdsworth meeting the club's new financial advisor Trevor Birch at the Macron Stadium to finalise details on his bid.

Birch's appointment on Tuesday night is known to have been welcomed by the group and, all being well, it is hoped the takeover could be completed by the end of next week.

It is also understood that the money used to fund Sports Shield's bid will come exclusively from the business itself.

It is unclear, however, whether lifelong fan Eddie Davies, would wipe off some or all of the debt owed to him by the club in the event of a sale going through.

What impact the arrival of Birch will have in the short-term is also up for discussion. The insolvency specialist is expected to quickly get to work to slow losses that have, at their worst, approached nearly £1m a month.

Sports Shield have remained silent on their involvement but it is known that the club is looking to up the number of non-footballing events it stages, including music concerts.

http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/14042165.UPDATED__Amir_Khan_involvement_could_be_tip_of_iceberg_in__X_Factor__takeover_bid_at_Bolton_Wanderers/?ref=mr&lp=1

Why does that sound like a load of bollocks? Surely investors could be putting their money into Sports Shield rather than directly into the club ala Moonshine Investments?

It is also understood that the money used to fund Sports Shield's bid will come exclusively from the business itself. 


I think that's one of those vague statements that doesn't really mean anything, if I'm honest.


Of course the money's coming "exclusively" from SS - they're the ones making the proposal.


But that doesn't necessarily mean it's money that they've made themselves, does it?


If I suddenly found £20m and passed it on to SS to invest in Bolton, it'd be my money but they'd be the ones handing it over, so technically, it'd be coming "exclusively" from them.


Semantics of language, I know but I don't think it's something we should be getting hung up over.

Could be but that would be a very unusual way of investing their money and probably illegal too.

Moonshine IS an investment company and is regulated as such by whichever country it is registered in.

As far as I can tell Sports Shield is just a normal UK trading company and not licensed and therefore unregulated as such to act as an investment company.

Investors would in my opinion have to invest with say a bank, then Sport Shield borrow that money from the bank in order to fund a takeover - if they are to comply with the current financial laws.

(It stops things like money laundering for instance).

The company who are dealing with Bolton is Sports Shield Investments and is separate from Sports Shield Consultancy, as I understand it.

I may be wrong though.

I usually am.......

Although:

http://www.sportsshield.co.uk/

Read the mission statement blurb thingy at the bottom.

They invite people with cash to work with them and suggest "investment opportunities" that will generate a return on monies invested.

Sounds exactly like an investment company to me.

Maybe you are right.

All I know is that the company was set up by Dean Holdworth on the 31st July of this year, with a £1,000 worth of capital (all owned by Holdsworth), from what I assume is his home, 12 St Augustine Drive, Droitwich (Didn't Allardyce originate from Droitwich?).

https://www.endole.co.uk/profile/1808208/dean-christopher-holdsworth

Would you tip over £15 million of your hard earned cash to some ex footballer, with little or no knowledge of financial investment ?

For what it is worth he seems to own two other businesses outright, Npra Ltd, which seems to have stopped trading and Nfla Ltd that has nearly a £60,000 debt!

Well that's considerably better than NLSWA Ltd with their reported £170m debt, so it's a start.....

No it looks like an asset-stripping exercise and I'm more concerned about that than where the money is coming from.

If as looks likely, ED/Moonshift takes possession of BWFC's physical assets including the stadium, training ground, hotel etc all Sports Shield will be buying is an SME company with a load of employees and a brand name. Maybe a photocopier or two. It doesn't require a lot of money to buy that.

They will inherit a huge wage bill, the increased costs of having to rent the facilities (from ED/Moonshift) and a very difficult trading position further undermined by staff morale issues.

I don't think BWFC is a sound investment but for that price it's not surprising that Deano has apparently approached a bunch of celebrities and former players. They could throw in a couple of million each and buy a share in a historic club and brand for what would relatively be peanuts. They would be paying for the brand more than anything.

Any other money behind Deano is another story.

I can see the scenario above which would lead us towards financial austerity and probably relegation unless Lennon (if he stays) performs miracles with the current squad, but I am struggling to imagine why any investor who doesn't have a personal connection to the club would consider a company without assets a sensible investment.

So I think to buy the club, all Deano has to do is call in a few favours.
But to lead the club to anything approaching success seems highly unlikely IMO.

And this is why I've got no truck with all the people queueing up to pat ED on the back and say what a wonderful bloke he is (and always has been).

This has clearly been the exit strategy all along:

Take the Sky money, convert it into tangible assets like Euxton and the other buildings up in Horwich (didn't we see a plan unveiled a couple of years back which involved acquiring a load of the properties around the stadium or did I dream that?) and then when the inevitable day comes when the operating costs become too great and he's in danger of actually starting to lose out, pull the plug and flog the "brand" onto someone else.

But keep the bits that are actually still worth something and can potentially turn a profit.

He's not "holding out for a serious investor with the interests of the great and historic Bolton Wanderers at heart", as has been suggested in some quarters, he's simply at the point where he has to get rid before he's left carrying the can when it all goes tits up and the Administrator gets called in by Barclays or God knows who else we owe money to.

Because that day has been rapidly approaching for months and the story in The Mail shows just how close we have come.

I don't know what is really going on but from the tit bits we hear it simply does not make any sense to me - financial or otherwise.

I know football seems to defy financial logic but at the end of the day it is about people and money and at our level we don't attract the Russian oligarchs or oil rich sheiks so its more important than ever to 'follow the money' to make some sense of what's happening.

I said from the beginning - and was ridiculed by many on other forums - that Davies simply didn't have the personal wealth to rack up the debts the club have accrued.  It seems to me that the real people behind the funding no longer want to invest in the club and the problem is now, not what the debt mountain total is but how we survive day to day with our income and outgoings.

Irrespective of everything that needs to be addressed urgently.

If we are not paying people like the taxman and the Quick Quid loan type company, then they WILL seek Administration - therefore they either do need to sell another chunk of the car park or something to sort such debts out or 'dump' the club as fast as they can on to some dupe or other to take the 'hit'.

It just seems too 'convenient' that Holdsworth 'bid' as come out of the blue at the right time.

Almost as though it was part of an exit strategy for those in power behind the scenes.

Holdworth set up the company less than 15 weeks ago!

There IS money tied up in the club in such things as land and property, so it seems logical that those behind the debt will want to retain and or sell such assets for their own benefit.

What then can anyone get from pumping circa £20 million into a financial black hole which is currently in my opinion BWFC?

If the takeover does go ahead it all just seems a bit too pat to be true for me.

But then again what do I know?

It is just my opinion on things and I might well be very wide of the mark.

We'll just have to see what happens because everything hangs on the deal. I just wish they'd hurry up and finalise it.

Well, here's another twist:

http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/wanderers/14091376.Holdsworth_s_Wanderers_takeover_bid_is_self_funded/

Seems you were right, Sluff and it's just Holdsworth & Collins.

Although I'm not entirely sure what "completely secured by assets owned by the company’s partners" means, if I'm honest.

Has Deano re-mortgaged his gaff?

Must be a nice house.......

But on a serious note, what does "company's partners" mean?

I know it's linguistic semantics again but it could either mean:

The partners in the business, ie Holdsworth & Collins

or

People working in partnership with Sports Shield.

Big difference and an important distinction.

And now Stelios enters the fray....