Agood read taken from a blog,
Pompey Takeover saga jaws to a close
A Shark’s Tale 29/8/12
There are 94 species of sharks that dwell in the South China Sea.
We at Pompey have identified for marine biologists a ninety fifth, first spotted three years ago off England’s south coast but known to have originated in Hong Kong, namely the Horribilus Gittus, more commonly known as the loan shark or Balu Chainrai for short.
Yep, the portly Portpin proprietor is back on the Pompey takeover scene, days after withdrawing his bid in a spectacular “nobody loves me” hissy fit.
The news Portpin were “reluctantly” applying yet again to buy the club brought a collective groan in the PO postcode area worthy of a group orgy porn film ending.
All the excitement generated amongst Pompey fans by the Portpin withdrawal, shown by the bumper 18k crowd against Bournemouth and the loud blue army who witnessed the entertaining 2-2 draw at Colchester, melted away like Michael Jackson’s nose a week ago when Portpin announced their new bid.
The fact that the fans’ very own Pompey Trust’s revised bid was due in last Friday morning I’m sure had nothing to do with Portpin’s fresh bid delivered late last Wednesday night, thereby giving little time for a response from anybody else.
Chainrai claimed in justifying his government-style U-Turn that the admin outfit PKF, Portsmouth City Council and the Professional Footballers’ Association all wanted Portpin to reapply, a Pinocchio-style claim roundly denied by all the three parties mentioned.
His new bid doesn’t seem to differ from Portpin’s original one, barring the emphasis the player settlements would be honoured in full (£8.4m), Portpin also snidely highlighted the Trust’s £2m offer to the players as “problematic”.
Portpin’s proposed CVA is due to run for 4 years, with the players being paid up in full over that period (4 x £2.1m). The Sky parachute payments end after two years so I am not quite sure how the club will be able to afford to pay the player settlements after that. Why doesn’t Portpin propose to pay the players the £8.4m out of the parachute payments in two years?
The Portpin four-year plan theoretically means Portpin putting money in, an alien concept I should think to the British Virgin Islands-based outfit, whose sole purpose, as stated often recently by Chainrai himself, is to get their money back.
The Trust’s bid says the players will get their £2m in next two years.
Unsurprised and undaunted by the Portpin late entry, the Trust put in their revised bid on Friday, the culmination of many months’ hard work, a bid backed by the fans, local MP’s, ex-players and the city council.
So it’s now a straight fight for ownership of Portsmouth Football Club between the Trust and Portpin, a whole community versus a remorseless money-making machine.
Trevor Birch of PKF has said his firm will look at both bids and decide which is best for all concerned, the club itself and the creditors. It’s a balancing act akin to King Solomon thinking about his pearls of wisdom while using a razor blade as a pubic hair nit comb.
The day after Portpin’s new bid there came new that there was a new third party interested in buying Pompey, a Mr Laurence Bassini. Watford fans were immediately all over the social media network like window-licking Jennifer Lopez stalkers warning Pompey fans about him, namely he had changed his name after being declared bankrupt, that he had sold the club to the Italian Pozzo family, lumbering them with huge debt that still has to be paid off.
Tales flowed of sacked staff, frozen bank accounts, our old friend Andrew Andronikou from our ex-admin crew UHY involved in the sale, all the familiar hallmarks of Pompey owners in recent years to be honest. I did check to see if he had changed his name from Azougy, Jacob, Gaydamak, Yossifoff, Al Faraj, Al Fahim etc but he was known as Lawrence Bazini previously.
The Pompey Trust acknowledged his interest and politely suggested that Bassini should submit a bid in his own right. In other words - go and do one.
If Portpin did succeed there would be the question of our beloved manager Michael Appleton, who was a tad miffed to say the least at Portpin’s late reduction in the player budget. Appy said Portpin had been “slightly unprofessional” in this matter, a massive understatement like saying Medusa often had a bad hair day.
Appleton said he would be happy to sit down with Portpin (who had slagged off Appleton in their hissy fit) if they took over and discuss what their plans were and, if he and Portpin were on the same wavelength, then he could foresee no problems but, if they weren’t, he would deal with that if that was the case.
As Appy is one of the club’s biggest assets at present, Portpin would be idiotic not to keep Appleton happy but there again, Portpin were the ones who lent money on three occasions to a non-existent Saudi so don’t be surprised if MA were to leave if Portpin took over.
Always wondered why Chainrai has never chased the actual bloke he supposed to have lent money to. £18m is not exactly loose change is it? Perhaps Balu is doing so as we speak, putting a whole new slant on the phrase “chasing his own tail”.
Talking of going round in circles I see Mr Chainrai has stepped in and saved the Liverpool Ferris Wheel from going out of business. Chainrai is no stranger to investing in the Ferris wheel industry in Asia and the Middle East and no doubt there will be a debenture issued to the new company Wheel Operations Ltd taking it over.
No doubt Cilla Black, Jimmy Tarbuck, Ken Dodd and Liverpool City Council all begged him to bid for it too.
