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http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/sp...-news/three-parties-confirm-bids-buy-4282808?
Three parties have confirmed they have officially bid to buy Coventry City out of administration.
Among them is what is believed to be an entity related to hedge fund Sisu, which owns Coventry City Football Club (Holdings) Limited, the company still running the club and Warwickshire-based quantity surveyor Michael Byng.
Holdings chief executive Tim Fisher told the Telegraph: “I can confirm a Holdings-related entity has submitted an indicative bid to the administrator Paul Appleton .”
Rail enthusiast Mr Byng, who is interested in attracting Asian investors for the club and Ricoh Arena, also confirmed he has lodged a formal bid.
Speaking to the Telegraph from Dubai, where he is meeting the Chinese financiers interested in buying the club, Ricoh Arena, and investing in the Coventry and Warwickshire region’s rail network, he said: “An indicative bid was submitted before the administrator’s deadline of Friday.”
He acknowledged an indicative bid was an expression of interest only at this stage, adding: “That’s all it can be at the moment. The situation regarding the football club is a complete and utter mess.
“So it’s been very difficult to persuade investors to stay interested. But we’ve done it. They are also very interested in our rail infrastructure plans.”
The Asian investors are interested in plans, revealed in last week’s Telegraph, to link the Coventry and Warwickshire rail network including a new Ricoh Arena station, to a combined HS2 and Birmingham Airport interchange station.
Speculative plans for a third airport runway next to the air and rail interchange have also now emerged.
A third bidder, as revealed weeks ago, is the party headed by suspended Sky Blues life-president Joe Elliott and ex-director Gary Hoffman, with potential investment from US property magnate Preston Haskell IV .
It follows Friday’s deadline set by administrator Paul Appleton, of David Rubin and Partners, for what he had called “indicative bids” to buy Coventry City Football Club Limited, the subsidiary company in administration.
A spokesman for Mr Appleton said the he was respecting the “confidential” nature of the process by refusing to reveal which parties had bid, or how many bidders there had been.
It is not therefore known if other individuals or parties submitted bids to meet Friday’s deadline.
There had been another five parties which had earlier approached Mr Appleton to express an interest. Some sources consider not all eight were serious bids.
It comes ahead of the administrator’s second meeting of creditors in London on Wednesday.
Frustrated fans hope by then Mr Appleton will be closer to concluding his investigations into which assets lie in the company in administration, and not Holdings.
Some sources involved with proceedings believe Mr Appleton is close to announcing who his preferred bidder or bidders are.
Insolvency law requires him to select the bid which is in the best interests of creditors. The creditors are mainly Sisu/Holdings and related firms which claim to be owed at least £45million.
The proceeds of a sale would go towards paying back at least some of the debts owed to creditors. If a takeover of CCFC Ltd is preferred by Mr Appleton, that party would have to hold talks with Sisu/Holdings, with Mr Fisher insisting the “club is not for sale”.
The Football League will ultimately decide which company it wants to transfer the crucial, currently suspended, golden share back to.
The golden share is essentially a licence to play in the Football League.
Fans’ groups including the Sky Blue Trust want a solution which prevents Holdings/Sisu’s plans to play outside the city – possibly at Walsall’s Banks’s stadium – while they seek to build a new stadium in the “Coventry area” in three years.
The saga follows a long-running legal dispute over stadium revenue, rent and ownership between Holdings/Sisu and Arena Coventry Limited, the part Coventry City Council owned company – directors and lawyers for which have said they favour new owners for the club.
The Football League has indicated there is no timescale this summer for it to rule on whether to allow Sisu/Holdings to go-ahead with its groundsharing plan in early August when the new season starts. In the meantime, the club is under a transfer embargo – unable to buy and sell players.
More than 12,000 people have signed a Telegraph petition calling for Sky Blues to remain in Coventry .
Many expect the saga will rumble on beyond rulings by the administrator and Football League, with further legal challenges in court over issues around the ownership of the club and its assets including the playing staff and the original resgistration of the golden share.
Three parties have confirmed they have officially bid to buy Coventry City out of administration.
Among them is what is believed to be an entity related to hedge fund Sisu, which owns Coventry City Football Club (Holdings) Limited, the company still running the club and Warwickshire-based quantity surveyor Michael Byng.
Holdings chief executive Tim Fisher told the Telegraph: “I can confirm a Holdings-related entity has submitted an indicative bid to the administrator Paul Appleton .”
Rail enthusiast Mr Byng, who is interested in attracting Asian investors for the club and Ricoh Arena, also confirmed he has lodged a formal bid.
Speaking to the Telegraph from Dubai, where he is meeting the Chinese financiers interested in buying the club, Ricoh Arena, and investing in the Coventry and Warwickshire region’s rail network, he said: “An indicative bid was submitted before the administrator’s deadline of Friday.”
He acknowledged an indicative bid was an expression of interest only at this stage, adding: “That’s all it can be at the moment. The situation regarding the football club is a complete and utter mess.
“So it’s been very difficult to persuade investors to stay interested. But we’ve done it. They are also very interested in our rail infrastructure plans.”
The Asian investors are interested in plans, revealed in last week’s Telegraph, to link the Coventry and Warwickshire rail network including a new Ricoh Arena station, to a combined HS2 and Birmingham Airport interchange station.
Speculative plans for a third airport runway next to the air and rail interchange have also now emerged.
A third bidder, as revealed weeks ago, is the party headed by suspended Sky Blues life-president Joe Elliott and ex-director Gary Hoffman, with potential investment from US property magnate Preston Haskell IV .
It follows Friday’s deadline set by administrator Paul Appleton, of David Rubin and Partners, for what he had called “indicative bids” to buy Coventry City Football Club Limited, the subsidiary company in administration.
A spokesman for Mr Appleton said the he was respecting the “confidential” nature of the process by refusing to reveal which parties had bid, or how many bidders there had been.
It is not therefore known if other individuals or parties submitted bids to meet Friday’s deadline.
There had been another five parties which had earlier approached Mr Appleton to express an interest. Some sources consider not all eight were serious bids.
It comes ahead of the administrator’s second meeting of creditors in London on Wednesday.
Frustrated fans hope by then Mr Appleton will be closer to concluding his investigations into which assets lie in the company in administration, and not Holdings.
Some sources involved with proceedings believe Mr Appleton is close to announcing who his preferred bidder or bidders are.
Insolvency law requires him to select the bid which is in the best interests of creditors. The creditors are mainly Sisu/Holdings and related firms which claim to be owed at least £45million.
The proceeds of a sale would go towards paying back at least some of the debts owed to creditors. If a takeover of CCFC Ltd is preferred by Mr Appleton, that party would have to hold talks with Sisu/Holdings, with Mr Fisher insisting the “club is not for sale”.
The Football League will ultimately decide which company it wants to transfer the crucial, currently suspended, golden share back to.
The golden share is essentially a licence to play in the Football League.
Fans’ groups including the Sky Blue Trust want a solution which prevents Holdings/Sisu’s plans to play outside the city – possibly at Walsall’s Banks’s stadium – while they seek to build a new stadium in the “Coventry area” in three years.
The saga follows a long-running legal dispute over stadium revenue, rent and ownership between Holdings/Sisu and Arena Coventry Limited, the part Coventry City Council owned company – directors and lawyers for which have said they favour new owners for the club.
The Football League has indicated there is no timescale this summer for it to rule on whether to allow Sisu/Holdings to go-ahead with its groundsharing plan in early August when the new season starts. In the meantime, the club is under a transfer embargo – unable to buy and sell players.
More than 12,000 people have signed a Telegraph petition calling for Sky Blues to remain in Coventry .
Many expect the saga will rumble on beyond rulings by the administrator and Football League, with further legal challenges in court over issues around the ownership of the club and its assets including the playing staff and the original resgistration of the golden share.