I was reminded today of what a senior Sevco director said in late 2014 when he was asked about the prospect of Dave King and his concert party taking over.
The chap in the Blue Room stated that King as chairman could “usher in a decade of litigation”.
Last week, the current Sevco High Command were ushered to a meeting late on Thursday.
It was only then that they were informed that there was due to be a High Court action in London the next day.
I find it a remarkable state of affairs that directors would have such short notice about a legal matter that directly concerned them.
Indeed, I think the vignette is instructive as to how the lines of communications are very tight at Sevco now.
It is almost as if Dave is running a one-man basket of assets there…
As for the hearing itself, I’m told that it didn’t go well for KingCo.
Firstly, they wanted the case to be heard in the summer.
However, General Ashley had his legal team going at it and they asked for the first available date.
There are others in the frame for this retail car boot sale.
I’m told that Elite Sports claim that they have an indemnity from their dignified partners.
Perhaps it is some sort of side letter, I don’t know.
Meanwhile, I understand that the chaps in the Takeover Panel are considering their next course of action apropos King’s share offer.
They appear to have a binary choice:
- Either walk away and leave it to an individual shareholder to take further action against King.
- Double down and get back in court and oppose King themselves.
My Square Mile source didn’t say that there was a third option.
However, he did say that even if King wins this case against the Takeover Panel the reputational damage that has been done to the Ibrox brand is substantial.
Apparently, they have long memories in the City for this sort of thing.
Of course, Dave’s business plan in Glasgow is based on those who were born yesterday.
Moreover, given that he has the local media onside then it seems to be working for him at the moment.
The absence of any journalistic scrutiny on his Sevco dealings is something that he has been able to take to the bank since the Off Licence Putsch in 2015.
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Maybe DCK is hoping the British isle will sink, disappear on the 29th of march. Just like servo did reborn with no debt.
Thanks for keeping us updated Phil.
Hail Hail
Drab morning but a read at IN is always good for a laugh as they talk about the club having to fend off ‘speculated’ bids in the January transfer window.
What were they fending them off with, a feather?
Classic example of the lack of professionalism we have to put up with in Scotland as EBT Dodds commented on the Highland derby last night.
Bad tackle in midfield, Dodds comments ‘lucky to get away with that one’, no he didn’t says his co presenter ‘ref brandished a yellow straight away.’
Oops says Dodds, must have missed that.
It’s a small thing but when they can’t see whats going on in front of their eyes why would anyone believe anything coming from the mouth of Dodds and his fellow travelers.
Anyone know what’s going on with the EBT’ers?
Are they all on payment plans with HMRC, apart from wee Barry whose skint?
Not related in any way to the above post Phil. I’m hearing that the Killie player Alan Power will find out today if retrospective action will be taken against him. I was under the impression he was booked for the incident in question. If this is the case surely no further action can be taken. Retrospective action can, I believe, only take place when the referee has missed the incident. Indeed waa there not a case earlier this season involving a Celtic player, where no action was taken on the field and no retrospective action could be taken because the referee included in his report that he had seen the incident but deemed that no action was necessary.
Ah but, depends what direction the wind’s blowing on any given day.
Collum booked the United player for his assault on the St Mirren guy at the weekend.
He was 5 yards from the incident as the United player forearm smashed his opponent at head height.
An absolute disgraceful decision, no wonder Robbie Neilsen was going nuts.
If that’s not reviewed then all is lost.
It must be chaos behind the scenes for the board and concert party trying to keep up with King’s shenanigans.
If King has been calling the shots in the SD fiasco the board must be shitting themselves as to what’s coming next.
It’s certainly not going to be good news.
Back to the footie. If Killie are overcome in the replay then it’s seconds out, round four, for McKenna and Morelos.
I’d imagine the odds on one or both being red carded will reflect whats happened in the previous fights, sorry fixtures, and won’t be making any punters rich.
Phil, DK’s offer related to the takeover panel went out last month. Shareholders have until Friday 1:00PM to accept. Has there been a change in this that hasn’t been reported? I would think the Panel will wait to see whether DK complies with the terms of his own offer before proceeding one way or the other. Regardless, I’m perplexed as to why you think shareholders and/or the Panel have further cause to take King to court at a time when he is actively (albeit reluctantly) complying with the Panel’s instructions.
This may be the shareholders who were suggested to be involved in organised crime didn’t Dave say that he would not be making an offer to them
Ah PMGB you’re at it again…
‘It’s ‘almost’ as if Dave’s running a one man basket of assets…’
‘Of course,Dave’s Glasgow business plan is based on those who ‘were’ born yesterday’
Phil if you weren’t already employed in the wordsmith industry I’d be recommending that you do so at your soonest convenience.Two classy lines.Two decades may be closer to the mark taking that it keeps moving at a snails pace.
Many thanks,appreciate your time.
‘
Am I missing something here Phil? I thought King appeared to have complied with the Court with the recent statement on the RFC website. Is there more he needs to do and has not done? Can anyone enlighten
me?
I’m not sure how things like this work, but I’m guessing that King will have to demonstrate that he has contacted those other shareholders individually with a view to buying their shares, at 20p per share. If none are sold to him, I’m guessing that he would have to provide evidence to support the non-acceptance of his offer. If he cannot provide proof that these scenarios have taken place, I’m guessing he will have invested the £19 million in organic fertilizers and motorized cooling devices, since it’s a stick-on that the shit is about to hit the fan.
Steven, the offer was made last month and published on Rangers’ web site in the investors section. It’s since been taken down, but shareholders were to be individually contacted with the terms of the offer regardless. The £19m was to be placed in an escrow account (maintained in liquid funds – cash or money market) in a U.K. bank, and that bank supposedly had to sign off that they had the cash before the offer went to shareholders.
All of this is pretty straight forward from a regulatory standpoint as the requirements are black and white.
Everything that’s been reported in the public domain points to King’s compliance with the court and the Takeover Panel at this point in time. As long as the cash was put in escrow and shareholders were individually notified of the terms of the offer – both of which are verifiable and we’re supposed to have been completed last month – there’s really no way for DK to back out and get his money out of the escrow account until this whole process is completed. Shareholder have until Feb 15th at 1:00PM London Time to accept the offer, so even DK won’t know how many shares he’s buying until then.
Question for Phil still stands though: what makes you think that there are further grounds for shareholder and/or TOP legal action? The only reason I can think of is if somehow the ‘offer’ didn’t comply with all of the requirements, but as that’s a fairly black and white issue I would think the Panel would be all over it and trying to get DK thrown in the clink for contempt of court. But there’s nothing in the public domain that even suggests that is the case so… what does Phil know that we don’t?
This brings us back to the point made by Steven. Will the court require proof that he did make individual offers to each shareholder, or will they just take his word for it? Will they also just take his word if he claims no one accepted his offer? Let’s face it, how many people who frequent this wonderful and generally enlightening site would believe DCK if he admitted he was lying. The confusion caused would burst yer heid!!!!
I suspect you are correct in your assumption that he would have to supply evidence. Personally, I would NEVER question the honesty, character or integrity of that fine upstanding pillar of society DCK. However, when he claimed in court that he had obtained assurances from a number of shareholders – named by him – that they had no intention of selling their shares, there did appear afterwards to be some confusion. The Easdales, who were among those named, were taken completely by surprise and within hours issued a statement not only utterly refuting his claims, but stating quite categorically that they had NEVER had any contact with him since he took over. Now, even though I might not question his honesty, I CAN UNDERSTAND that others might. In fact l was under the impression that lying in court was perjury. That used to be something courts took a very dim view of.
For the avoidance of doubt, as Phil would say, when I stated that I would NEVER question the honesty of DCK…….I WAS LYING. But I’m not giving evidence in a court!!
Like SomersetBhoy I need enlightened. What have I missed?
I don’t think it is deemed legal to have simply posted a statement/offer on the official club website. I would have thought that the correct procedure would be to write to each shareholder individually (even if simply by email) stating the offer price. I could be totally wrong but, considering it has taken King this long, because of his obfuscation, the TOP will not be best pleased that DCK appears to be pulling another fast one.