Yesterday, I was reminded of a free and frank exchange of views between the Serious Professional and Mr King’s intergalactic PR guru.
In a tense exchange, the former reminded the latter that one day the South African based convicted criminal would vacate the chairman’s chair.
The Serious Professional stated that when that happened it would be a case of ‘services no longer required’ for the ex-newspaper man.
If Mr King is true to his word (no laughing at the back please) then he will be gone from the Blue Room probably before Patrick’s Day next year.
In his fart breaking speech, he revealed that it had been difficult to keep control of the basket of assets while being resident in South Africa.
His presence here on Planet Fitba for most of that time was his Conveyancing Consigliere and his inter-galactic PR guru.
If Mr King is truly gone then these two chaps will leave as surely as a sacked manager takes his backroom team with him when he clears his desk.
So that is one to watch.
It comes as no surprise that there has been zero journalistic scrutiny of what he said at the RIFC AGM yesterday.
The King speech in full here.
A cynic might conclude that it was a glib and shameless tour de farce.
Certainly, the response of the local media was farcical even by their standards.
King, robotically emoting throughout, presented as a man speaking from the heart, but only when his notes were in the correct order!
As ever I prefer to follow follow the money rather than be dazzled by the dignified shiny things waved in front of the klan.
Therefore, one point jumped out at me was at 29.45.
“Since year end I put in an additional five million pounds to assist with immediate funding over summer transfer business.”
Now, deep breath, if Mr King is telling the truth here (I know I Know) then this is a remarkable admission.
It means that in the period after the year-end accounts (30th June 2019) during a period when football clubs are cash-rich due to the season ticket pot being full they needed £5m.
This is the sort of admission that should have been forensically analysed in any genuine interview after the AGM.
Such an event could have yielded up Prince Andrew levels of quintessentially British popcorn.
However, with the Stenography Corps begging for his approval that was always unlikely.
My information is that his departure was not at a time of his choosing.
An impeccably placed source reached out to me last night and presented an alternative narrative to the one that king had laid out at the AGM.
I was told that Close Brothers had let it be known to the Sevco High Command that any NEW arrangement with the basket of assets would only go ahead of the Convict Chairman was off the scene.
So let’s just piece this together:
Imagine that Sevco currently doesn’t have the money to pay back Close Brothers in February.
Consequently, they have to restructure and reschedule that loan.
Close Brothers say no chance while King is still there because of the pesky Cold Shoulder sanction from the Takeover Panel.
The anti-King faction on the board then put an ultimatum to their esteemed chairman and it goes something like this:
‘We can’t get another loan so you will have to pony up the money owed to Close Brothers to keep us going until the season ticket money comes in next summer!’
If that narrative is anywhere near the money-and I believe that it is-then it would explain the angry finger-pointing in the boardroom at New Douglas Park last weekend.
Of course, none of this will register with the credulous klan.
For them, King’s place in the Ibrox firmament is tearfully non-negotiable.
Their gullibility and the craven cowardice of the local media were two aces that King always had up his shifty sleeve.
If Mr King’s reign of error is truly over then he leaves Sevco in a much worse financial state than they were at the time of the Off Licence Putsch in March 2015.
Ashley’s guys had almost righted the ship.
Now the basket of assets is dependent on external debt from very tough lenders.
Moreover, they are facing a contingent liability (the Sports Direct Retail bill) that they will struggle to pay.
That is the inconvenient truth that the local media dare not face.
Just like the last days of Rangers, they hoped that their regurgitated pish about Craig Whyte’s stealth wealth would somehow come true.
It didn’t.
King’s putative departure does not change the immediate state of Sevco’s finances.
Now, that is where the REAL story can be found.
Stenographers take note…
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Phil the gullible hoards will think the £5M was to pay for Ryan Kent. However, as you know, transfer deals are paid over a number of years often with 40% upfront (£2.8M) – close to the Europa League expectations – and then an be paid at 20% over next 3 years (£1.4M per year).
Analysis of debts, including net transfer cash, and other liabilities leaves them with enormous liabilities and precarious cash flow.
Unless there is a sugar daddy, their cash flow situation must be Close (every pun intended) to terminal.
Douglas Park could provide short term funds to overcome short term cash issues but as more liabilities are realised (SDRI) this becomes the position of a fool (unless he secures this against asset such as Morelos – assuming The Glib has not stolen a march on that one🤔).
I have successfully managed businesses with cash flow problems but this one looks near to impossible. His share issue is to generate cash whilst stiffing incumbent investors. Good luck with that one. Max they will raise is a few million bit with more than £20M likely to be due within a year (or immediate if SDIR requests ring fencing of funds from Court) The Serious Professional will be trading whilst insolvent very soon.
This is as serious as 2012 and very worrying – unless Hubris is your comfort.
The cold hard facts are that they were running at a £1.1m loss per month in the last financial year.
As Phil has noted recently the outgoings are significantly higher, Kent plus other additions to the playing squad for a start.
Current year monthly losses will be approaching £1.5m per month with the increased costs, and revenue fully capped. Full stadium, Europa Group stage qualification, same as last season.
Whatever happens next King will wash his hands of any responsibility. As the major shareholder and shadow football club Chairman is he going to throw someone else under the bus for the merchandising contract shambles?
Two points. He personally funded the purchase of a new player. Is this not similar to what PSG got into bother with UEFA for with FFP rules?
The new share issue will bring in £10m. The fans wont ante up this amount so a new shareholder is on his way? but this will not give them ownership and in fact King will still be the major shareholder. If King sells his shares the money does not go to the club it goes to King. The purchaser will then have to put more money.
the last roll of the dice, the deflection tactic of “stepping down” and a squirrel fest of el buffalo, investors, £100 million squads. KINGGO will let refinance rouse take place and he will take the $5million loan and interest out of the close bros brothers refinancing and square of the gazillion shares out there, but couple of omission completely flew through the radar in the hullabaloo….
Steven Gerrard’s lack of comment, on these “positive” things was equally noticeable, he’s usually got lot to say for himself, and did not particularly look happy snappy in the photos. If Celebrity Coach comes off script (highly possible) watch Jabba and the crew, turn on him….. Lose both Glasgow Derby’s and the heat from that will be unbearable, he’s had a check mate position played on him yesterday and it will be interesting to see how he reacts, when that penny arcade drops.
KingCo stated, – he didn’t know if saddling the club with debt (£35/40 million of it), and the lack of it the playing side and the maintenance was a good thing, and maybe the position could have been better but and wait for it Stevie your shot across the bow was there in this too, but herein lays, his answer for if Celtic get 10IAR under his watch.
“Did it set us back? I don’t know. Maybe that had more to do with the managers.” – Dave King 26,11,2019. Deny Deflect and Lie.
Now imagine if you’d bowed to every whim of the Ego One, gave him Dubai, £25million and 3 teams, in 2 years, cash, you didn’t have your staffing costs up by 66% by year 2 and only a potential cup win to show for it……. where does the blame go for that return?….not the Glib One….. He saved Rangers2, don’t you know, if the pressure on SG wasn’t enough already, KingCo getting out of Dodge, before the Slippy One does it again…..
I hope for Celtic’s case, the KingCo, stays because I would love it too see them, try and spin Rang3rs.
Sadly, Scotland has no financial fair play rules, I wonder how Feynoord, Porto, Young Boys, or any of the other teams knocked out along the way feel about that. Eitherway, KingCo wins.
Is King’s talk of ‘squaring off the books’, with yet another share issue in January of £20m, the big investment being punted on the radio by Alex Rae?
You have to hand it to King because he knows his audience and what they want to hear with no danger of the Scottish media asking any difficult questions.
He said that apart from player trading Rangers were up there with Celtic on all other counts.
Really, has Ibrox suddenly turned into a 60,000 capacity stadium?
And best of all the merchandising deals and revenue generated are miles apart with whatever monies generated at Ibrox being dwarfed by the pending Sports Direct bill.
You say “in the period after the year-end accounts (30th June 2019) during a period when football clubs are cash-rich due to the season ticket pot being full” For any other club that would be the case, but for Rangers it’s a bit different. There’s a little paragraph on page 52 of their accounts that reads:
“Of the total trade receivable balance of £19,037,000, … £9,832,000 relates to amounts due from merchant service providers. Such assets held by the merchant service provider are released to the Club over the course of the season.”
For most football clubs, if a season ticket holder pays for his ticket with a credit card, the card company passes over that money (minus their cut) straightaway, then they get their money back (and more interst) as and when the card holders pay their bills. Their is, however, a slight risk to them in that if said football club goes bust, then they are liable to refund the season ticket holder for any games the club doesn’t fulfil. That risk is usually minimal, after all it’s incredibly rare that a football club goes bust mid season and doesn’t complete their fixtures.
In the case of Rangers, the people who assess risk at the credit card company have looked at the state of their books, decided they don’t want to be left holding the can, and chosen to keep hold of the cash and only release it as and when Rangers actually play home games. Let me put that another way. Their credit card company thinks it more likely than not that they will go tits up this year. Has another club ever got that vote of non-confidence from their bank. After all Britney Spears had to run around Las Vegas half naked and chop off most of her own hair before anyone could step in to control her bank account’
So from a cash flow point of view they actually had £10 million less than expected to piss away at season ticket renewal time, hence the need to borrow £7 million to cover that unexpected hole. On the upside they get an extra £1/2 million or so put in their bank every home game which may increase their chances of making it to May. Unless Dave’s loan has first dibs on that cash.
When they finally realise how bad king was for them, they should put up a statue of king with a hand in someone else’s pocket.
Or, perhaps King has a future in stage musicals? There’s a part that he would be ideal for in OLIVER! I’m thinking of him playing the part of Fagin. Davies would even get to sing his cold, black heart out to “GOTTA PICK A POCKET OR TWO”.
Failing that, he’d be ideal to play EBENEZER SCROOGE..
his “loan” of £5million is interest bearing….see this extract from the transcript of his speech which was published on the club website..what rate is being charged??
“In fact, the South African exchange control involvement in reviewing what was going on at Rangers had a subsequent negative impact on the Club. Since year-end I put in an additional £5 million pounds to assist with the immediate funding of our summer transfer business. The South African authority would not approve a further investment in shares in Rangers and eventually only approved a loan on an interest earning basis. That is one reality I face from living in a country that continues to have capital controls.”
No doubt they will take note then stick the note in a folder marked not to be used and file in the bin, or is the MSM making me cynical?
Social media is awash with braggadocio about all the money they are awash in. Lowering the pitch, extending the stadium, selling More-or-Less for 40m, putting statues up to King who “saved ra club” (as well as everything else, they’ve also forgotten Green). I know I know, they’re deluded most of the time, but is this the madness before some big bad announcement?
I’m already imagining the image of the official sevco website when it comes time for Jabba to part company with the company/holding-vehicle.
Imagine, if you will, the opening credits of Star Wars…
In a galaxy far,far away
Jabba the Hun has been despatched to the four corners of the universe,
Never again to follow, follow the undead.
Whilst being cast asunder from Planet Orange
He befriends a tribe, called the Steno’s.