Statement from the Hotel Administrator Quantuma

ADMINISTRATORS at The Bolton Whites Hotel have warned that the sale of the business could still be “six to eight weeks” away.
Insolvency firm Quantuma released a statement this evening claiming that they have had “limited contact” until recently with David Rubin and Partners, the administrators at the club, or their preferred bidders, the Football Ventures consortium.
Several interested parties have registered their interest to buy the hotel, including two commercial chains and a number of individuals, the latest of which appears to be former Nottingham Forest owner, Fawaz Al-Hasawi.

Al-Hasawi sold Forest to Greek shipping magnate Evangelos Marinakis in May 2017 after four-and-a-half years in charge at the City Ground.

His time at the club ended acrimoniously, however, eventually leading to a successful High Court claim over £4.2million of loans which related to Forest’s sale. 

Football Ventures have all-but completed the process of buying the club but have delayed making an announcement to try and buy both businesses concurrently.

Among the company's listed directors is Michael James, the Westhoughton-based property developer who also has loans secured against the Bolton Whites Hotel.

Concerns have been voiced among supporters over what would happen to their involvement at Bolton should they fail to buy the hotel – and the content of Quantuma’s statement, which indicates they are only part-way through the process – is unlikely to calm nerves.

Quantuma do note, however, that they are “sympathetic” to the timeframe involved. 

The statement read: “While there is a close relationship between the football club and the Bolton Whites Hotel, they are two separate legal entities, which has given rise to them having their own individual secured and unsecured creditors.
 
“In addition, there is a substantial inter-company debt due to the hotel from the football club. It is for these reasons that separate administrators were appointed over the business and assets of the hotel and football club; to avoid potential conflicts of interest and to protect the interest of the separate stakeholders.

“As the joint administrators of Bolton Whites Hotel Limited, our statutory duty is to act in the best interests of all of the creditors of the Hotel. We are also duty bound to remain impartial. 

“At the time of our appointment, the hotel was closed. The joint administrators’ determined that re-opening the hotel would benefit all creditors. Therefore, the joint administrators focus has been on returning it to operational viability. 

“This has involved significant challenges including securing key supplies, allaying customer concerns, ensuring the hotel is re-listed on booking websites and ensuring any health and safety issues have been resolved.

“We have also implemented a programme of limited emergency capital expenditure to ensure the ongoing trading of the business.

“We could not have achieved all of this without the ongoing commitment of all of the staff of the hotel, and are pleased that we have been able to pay wages and salaries of the staff including their arrears at the date of our appointment. 

“We have commenced a marketing and sales process of the hotel and have appointed agents to manage the process, which has received significant interest from potential purchasers. We expect the process to run for four to six weeks and do not propose to comment on progress during this time, as discussions will be confidential.

“While we note press comment regarding the sale of the football club, until recently we had had only limited interaction with the football club administrators and no contact with potential purchasers of the club. 

“The joint administrators are sympathetic to the football club’s need to complete an urgent sale before the start of the new season and cognisant of the emotional impact the current situation is having on the fan base and local community. 

However, the joint administrators obligations remain to fulfil their statutory duties.”

https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/17774451.ex-forest-owner-fawaz-al-hasawi-linked-bolton-hotel-sale/

Hi Sluffy after reading the latest exploits on WW i was somewhat encouraged by your reasoned explanation regarding the sale of the club ad the effect that the Hotel sale may or may not be a problem.
This latest announcement means there is unless FV act, a real chance that the club will if allowed start the season without an owner. (can this happen)

You said that if the club cannot be run as a going concern then the administrators would have to liquidate the club? So with the latest announcement does that mean FV must make a move before August 3rd and sort the hotel out later or simply walk away and switch off the lights.

wessy wrote:Hi Sluffy after reading the latest exploits on WW i was somewhat encouraged by your reasoned explanation

It's disgraceful that sluffy is posting his best work on a rival site.

From now on I'll be posting 'Behind Enemy Lines' on PornHub.

Natasha Whittam wrote:

wessy wrote:Hi Sluffy after reading the latest exploits on WW i was somewhat encouraged by your reasoned explanation

It's disgraceful that sluffy is posting his best work on a rival site.

From now on I'll be posting 'Behind Enemy Lines' on PornHub.

Sluffy treats Nuts like a second home in Cornwall. What's Pornhub?

boltonbonce wrote:What's Pornhub?

Google it, it wont even make the top 100 of your dodgiest searches.

wessy wrote:Hi Sluffy after reading the latest exploits on WW i was somewhat encouraged by your reasoned explanation regarding the sale of the club ad the effect that the Hotel sale may or may not be a problem.
This latest announcement means there is unless FV act, a real chance that the club will if allowed start the season without an owner. (can this happen)

You said that if the club cannot be run as a going concern then the administrators would have to liquidate the club? So with the latest announcement does that mean FV must make a move before August 3rd and sort the hotel out later or simply walk away and switch off the lights.

Thanks for the kind words.

It's difficult to give you a definitive answer without knowing for certain James/BPB's head claim on the hotel.

I'm 99% certain it is but if it is not then it will probably cause major problems.

As far as I understand the situation is that IF James is top dog he will get his money back, or if there isn't enough from a potential sale, then he would simply take ownership of the hotel.

What is key about this is nothing to do with the hotel itself but the fact that he his getting his £5.5m or so, to put into the pot towards the club.  He either can take his money out from the hotel and put it into the club or own the hotel and borrow money against it using the hotel as security.  The hotel doesn't make anything like enough in trading to fund the football club as Nixon, Iles and others believe to be the case and crucial to FV's plans.

However if for some reason James isn't top dog and Anderson is, then MJ won't get his £5.5m back or have the hotel to borrow against - and as such blow a massive hole in the FV funding.

I would imagine by now James would know for definite his position, so would expect FV to complete the purchase of the club.  I can only think the hotel Administrator has for whatever reasons not given his final verdict on the pecking order of the secured creditors until very recently - maybe there was some form of legal arguing going on in the background until now, preventing such a final conclusion, as whoever isn't top dog will seemingly be losing millions as the value of the hotel estimated by the Administrator I have been informed was £4.5m to £5m and James has £5.5m in it for certain and Ken I believe is looking for £5m.

I would imagine that whoever turns out not to be the top dog will no doubt take legal action against the Administrator, so I guess you can't blame him wanting to dot all the 'i's' and cross all the 't's' and taking his time and doing a perfect job, just to cover his own back.

If the Administrator comes to a decision they both are equal top dogs then I guess James having that extra half million more in the hotel gives him the edge on agreeing the Administrators decision, as being the 'majority' secured share holder  - although I believe myself that he will have to rule that one of their claims as precedence over the other - and that would be James.

There is also gossip tonight that the EFL are meeting FV tonight and may well be discussing what if any points deduction/fine they will face for the utterly stupid player strike causing the Brentford game to be called off.

If so maybe FV may be in a better bargaining position to have a lighter penalty (if any!) by them saying a fine and/or points deduction would make the club purchase no longer attractive to them - in which case the EFL would have to start the season with one team down, or cause massive disruption by promoting a team up from the division below (and that be continued down the tiers of the leagues).

I'm wildly speculating there but they are in a position to do that if they wished to.

As I've said on Wways, BWFC is insolvent and if FV pulls out there would be no other choice left for the Administrator to immediately liquidate the club.

The only way that can possibly be prevented is buy someone pumping money into them to continue via JV.  If JV is no longer there, then there is no formal mechanism for the money to be pumped in.

The EFL needs assurances that the club can complete the season and with no other bidder for the club and needing to go through the process of putting up the club for sale again, there isn't the time to do that, the money to keep the club going whilst going through the process and no guarantee after doing so that they actually will find someone to buy the club with a minimum of £25m to invest and pass the EFL's Fit and Proper Person criteria.

I would suspect if the hotel Administrator has made his decision about who the top dog secured creditor is (and it is James) and the EFL are happy that JV will be able to complete the season, that a sale will be announced somewhat quickly now.

So to recap and more directly answer your questions -

The club cannot start the season without someone proving to the EFL that they have the resources to complete it.  The Administrator could not give that guarantee, so an owner with EFL approval is required prior to them taking part in the league.

I guess the EFL may permit the first few games of the season to be postponed if it is crucial for the deal to be completed but they would be certain it would - and no doubt very reluctant to even contemplate going down that path.

And if James has the head charge on the hotel there's probably no great worry waiting a month or two for it to be sold although that might mean the need of a short term bridging loan IF James £5.5m was essential to the cash flow for buying the club/bringing the club out of Administration.

I would even speculate that as long as FV purchases the club and prove to the EFL that they can financially complete the season, that they can do so whilst still under Administration awaiting the completion of the hotel in order to fund the exit from Admin - as the owners would run the club as a newco but until they settle with the Administrator, the EFL's golden share would still remain in the club that remains under Admin until the settlement with the creditors is complete.

Don't take the last paragraph as gospel though and I doubt it would come to that anyway.

Hope that answers all your points.

Yes thanks that is a very detailed response, I guess the average fan who think that FV should just buy the club today, have not factored in that a major player in FV maybe (or is) totally reliant on the Hotel sale to purchase the club, hence a potential shortfall if it all goes wrong. 

So if a sale happens before the season starts we could assume that MJ is the principle player in the Hotel sale and after satisfying the EFL all should end well, even if technically we are still in Administration or not. I assume all these questions do have an answer but are not in the public domain, ie Hotel admin must know who have first dibs surely at this point, and the other side of the worrying coin if FV walk away then KA may well be top dog in the hotel stakes and we lose the club.

I would hope the EFL will bend any way they can to help the deal go through they owe some loyalty in this sorry mess.

Natasha Whittam wrote:

wessy wrote:Hi Sluffy after reading the latest exploits on WW i was somewhat encouraged by your reasoned explanation

It's disgraceful that sluffy is posting his best work on a rival site.

From now on I'll be posting 'Behind Enemy Lines' on PornHub.

Looking forward to it but be careful not to expose yourself.

Natasha Whittam wrote:

wessy wrote:Hi Sluffy after reading the latest exploits on WW i was somewhat encouraged by your reasoned explanation

It's disgraceful that sluffy is posting his best work on a rival site.

From now on I'll be posting 'Behind Enemy Lines' on PornHub.

I'm more than happy to post here all the time on but what's the point as when I do I'm told I'm up Ken's arse, obsessed with the ST and told that Iles is a paragon of truthfulness, honesty and totally free from bias on whatever he says!

On this particular subject though I might as well post where at least one or two accept that I do know what I'm talking about (at times anyway) and can manage more than to reply to me without using the word 'Kenocchio', posting pictures of Captain Ahab (although I do look a bit Gregory Peckish - the two legged variety) or try to get me involved in contrived meaningless arguments over nothing much really other than in an attempt to wind me up.

If I'm having to post elsewhere then what do you think happened to all those regular posters we once had and why they no longer bother with Nuts?

Having fun is one thing but as always one or two always have to take it far to far.

I'm more than happy to attempt to answer anybody's queries on here if anyone has any - even Wanderlust's been asking me over in Wways - who would ever have thought that would ever happen?

I didn't bother replying - in fact no one did - after all he is financial advisor expert with an MBA (from a premier authorising body) and I'm apparently the one with numerous mental health issues.

Sometimes in life we do indeed reap what we sow.

I'm sure he won't lose any sleep over it though.

I'd be willing to bet you look nothing like Gregory Peck. I've seen pictures, and you don't have a leg to stand on.
Why is your house called The Pequod? Why are you always in Starbucks? Why are you so good at darts?
I'll piece this mystery together, if it's the last thing I do.

wessy wrote:Yes thanks that is a very detailed response, I guess the average fan who think that FV should just buy the club today, have not factored in that a major player in FV maybe (or is) totally reliant on the Hotel sale to purchase the club, hence a potential shortfall if it all goes wrong. 

So if a sale happens before the season starts we could assume that MJ is the principle player in the Hotel sale and after satisfying the EFL all should end well, even if technically we are still in Administration or not. I assume all these questions do have an answer but are not in the public domain, ie Hotel admin must know who have first dibs surely at this point, and the other side of the worrying coin if FV walk away then KA may well be top dog in the hotel stakes and we lose the club.

I would hope the EFL will bend any way they can to help the deal go through they owe some loyalty in this sorry mess.

Yes, you've got the picture as to how I see it.

boltonbonce wrote:I'd be willing to bet you look nothing like Gregory Peck. I've seen pictures, and you don't have a leg to stand on.
Why is your house called The Pequod? Why are you always in Starbucks? Why are you so good at darts?
I'll piece this mystery together, if it's the last thing I do.

Funnily enough when I very first joined a forum and had to think of a user name my first thought was to name myself Ishmael, as in the opening line of Moby Dick - "Call me Ishmael".  Seemed the obvious name to chose to me.

I ended up playing safe as Slough White, then later to Sluffy.

True story.

Good book to read too - got words in it I hadn't even heard of before such as leviathan.

I had however heard of 'obsession' before reading the book though.

Just you stay here and keep us informed Sluffy, you'll have a whale of a time, (sorry !) 

Why has there only been limited contact between the 2 sets of administrators? No wonder things are dragging on so much. They must have known any bidder would want the Hotel as well as the club.

As for Sluffy, i didn't realise my use of Kenocchio annoyed you so much, i'll definitely try to use it more 

Sluffy wrote:

boltonbonce wrote:I'd be willing to bet you look nothing like Gregory Peck. I've seen pictures, and you don't have a leg to stand on.
Why is your house called The Pequod? Why are you always in Starbucks? Why are you so good at darts?
I'll piece this mystery together, if it's the last thing I do.

Funnily enough when I very first joined a forum and had to think of a user name my first thought was to name myself Ishmael, as in the opening line of Moby Dick - "Call me Ishmael".  Seemed the obvious name to chose to me.

I ended up playing safe as Slough White, then later to Sluffy.

True story.

Good book to read too - got words in it I hadn't even heard of before such as leviathan.

I had however heard of 'obsession' before reading the book though.

MD was hard going for me, and I don't think I'll be reading it again. Good film though.

Norpig wrote:Why has there only been limited contact between the 2 sets of administrators? No wonder things are dragging on so much. They must have known any bidder would want the Hotel as well as the club.

As for Sluffy, i didn't realise my use of Kenocchio annoyed you so much, i'll definitely try to use it more 

It's not the use of the word, I use it to describe the mindset on here the complete lack of understanding (or even trying to understand) of how companies function in law.

Everything was Ken's fault, still is with many - a closed mind approach, unable (unwilling) to grasp that not everything actually was.  Being an obnoxious bastard (which he may well be) doesn't equate to doing anything legally wrong in running his business.

I just got fed up of talking to the wall of hatred all the time.

The 'Kenocchio' mindset by many on here (Peter being a notable exclusion) wasn't going to change, so I was just wasting my time trying to continually explain things to people who simply didn't want to listen, particularly recently when there's been loads to talk about in respect to the Administration.

There's non so deaf as those that will not hear, type of thing.

I'm perfectly willing to listen and debate with anyone on here Sluffy including you but you do come across as being in the know when all you are doing is what everyone else is doing  - guessing pure and simple.
I may not understand company law but i can recognise a slippery bastard who saw an opportunity to make money quickly but got caught out then left the club high and dry. I know you will say it is isn't his personal responsibility to have paid out from his own money by the way as we have been over this a million times already.

Norpig wrote:I'm perfectly willing to listen and debate with anyone on here Sluffy including you but you do come across as being in the know when all you are doing is what everyone else is doing  - guessing pure and simple.
I may not understand company law but i can recognise a slippery bastard who saw an opportunity to make money quickly but got caught out then left the club high and dry. I know you will say it is isn't his personal responsibility to have paid out from his own money by the way as we have been over this a million times already.

Fwiw in a past life I was a Company Secretary (no, not one of those that do the typing) so I do have experience and a vague idea of how companies actually work.

If I'm guessing, then at least it is an informed guess and again fwiw I seemed to have been proved right with my 'guesses' more often than not.

I do understand company law (well some of it anyway) and the vast majority of owners of businesses are there simply to make money for themselves - and the quicker the better if they can achieve it.  That's what it is all about, the creation of wealth for the economy (taxation), the workers (wages) and themselves (profit).

You're free to believe what you want though and I'm certainly not that King who tried to make the tide turn and go back, so for the last few months I've joined the debate on Wways rather than keep banging my head against the wall on here.

But Sluffy that is the whole point of a forum, your forum! Doesn't look good when the owner of a forum posts on another forum because he doesn't like or agree with the replies he gets on here.

You're selling WW to me Sluffy. I might go and join. Is there any serious slipper action? I wouldn't want to tread on any toes if the subject already has a main man/woman.
Would I have to be vetted? 
Would my past count against me?
Do they have a nurse?