The official "Takeover Completed" thread

[grfc1975 1]

I'm dreaming of a whyte Christmas

Just like the ones I used to know,

Where no one will listen

But we'll be pissin

All over the Tims to 3 in a row

[Muff 245]

From to-days Herald

Herald Sport has learned of several other crucial factors relating to Whyte’s plan, which proposes a £27.1m injection of funds to clear the club’s debt to Lloyds Bank, the purchase of Murray Park and Ibrox, and a further £5.5m to buy out Murray’s majority stake and the other shareholders.

Whyte has provided Murray with written proof that he will not borrow from a bank or finance house and the Rangers owner is convinced of Whyte’s ability to provide investment in the playing squad year on year, and the club as a whole, going forward

The ongoing tax investigation from HMRC into off-shore payments made into players’ trusts by Rangers is also being addressed, and warranties may be inserted over any future liabilities should there be a tax bill in the future to ensure smooth passage of the deal.

A source close to Whyte said last night that he is frustrated at not being able to seal a quick deal and wants to help the manager, Walter Smith, in the transfer window in January in terms of strengthening a threadbare squad

http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/spl/rangers/whyte-s-33m-rangers-deal-a-step-closer-after-very-positive-meeting-1.1072400

Interesting...

[markybear 136]

Is the LSE listing this potential takeover yet?

If not, is that not quite strange?

I don't know or pretend to know how this all works but I thought the LSE announcement was a priority

??

[Polo 1,433]

I am still worried about the Ellis involvement; he is not putting any money in upfront but will be given 25% share of the club for which he will pay back Whyte over time somehow!

Can anyone tell me how to find or has anyone found published accounts from any of his companies or details of any deals that he has completed?

If Whyte is loaning him money for the 25% share then it doesn't matter if Ellis can afford it. If he can't pay Whyte back for the shares then Whyte will just be able to take them back. If Ellis is getting shares at the point of takeover then they will probably be pledged to Whyte in security.

[nickn1234 4]

in todays news, sorry if repost.

My link

[nickn1234 4]

another article worth a look:

My link

[Goianegra 4,684]

Great news, hope all end well.

[nickn1234 4]

hopefully so mate, nothing really new in these articles but it all looks positive just now- i think most of us are now getting a much better feeling from this potential takeover than the other "bids" talked about in the last year or so.

[Goianegra 4,684]

hopefully so mate, nothing really new in these articles but it all looks positive just now- i think most of us are now getting a much better feeling from this potential takeover than the other "bids" talked about in the last year or so.

That's what I like. It doesn't look like this will fail.

[grfc1975 1]

cheers mate 2 good reads. hope we all have a happy ending.

[Ted E Bayer 484]

Copy paste the article mate

[DarcheVinny 1,003]

tom english's article is good, would love for us to be takenover without ellis as he maybe suggests at the end of the article.

[mortos 8]

Good stuff, thanks for posting mate. All looks very positive!

[pcbear 10,924]

I'm sure the papers will have the "potential hitch/stumbling block/unforseen problem" back pages already printed just to take the gloss off it, it does seem to be heading the right way handled properly by a man who knows what he is doing.

[Govan Front Antz 15]

Good read from English! I hope Ellis is not involved in anyway!

[Right_To_Censor 1,951]

was in my local news agents buying rolls when i had a swatch at the sunday mail, apprently he owes 900k and he's being sued.

lol media

[H72 265]

Rangers confident Whyte deal can be done by January

Published Date: 05 December 2010

By Tom English and Andrew Smith

Sir David Murray's 22-year reign as owner of Rangers Football Club will come to an end within weeks, Scotland on Sunday understands. Craig Whyte, the 39-year-old London-based Scot, is expected to take control of the club by mid-January.

The £33 million deal, which will wipe out the existing debt that has stymied Rangers in the transfer market for two years, is at an advanced stage and though Whyte has still to complete his due diligence, there is confidence at Ibrox that he is the "real deal", as one source put it.

Whyte has proven he has the money to take the club forward and has agreed to a demand by Sir David Murray to invest £5m a year on new players.

The sale of the club has been a heavily protracted affair. Three years ago, Murray was within hours of selling Rangers only to pull out of the deal at the last minute, saying that he had become suspicious of the "property angles" the prospective purchasers were planning. Since then, there has been any number of people who have emerged as the "saviour" of the Ibrox faithful.

Graham Duffy, a Glasgow-born Floridian, hit the headlines late last year with a proposal to launch a fans' buy-out of the club. Duffy's bid was quickly rubbished by Rangers. Dave King, the multi-millionaire Rangers fan who made his fortune in South Africa, was touted as the man to do the deal, but again nothing happened. King remains in dispute with the South African Revenue Services who claim he owes upwards of £100m in taxes, a claim King disputes. Earlier this year, Andrew Ellis, an English property developer, was said to be close to buying the club but Rangers lost faith in him as he prevaricated.

When Alastair Johnston, the Rangers chairman, recently referred to the "trial balloonists" who had expressed an interest in buying the club it is believed he was referring, in the main, to Ellis. However, Johnston has been far more circumspect since news of Whyte's interest first emerged. Surprisingly, Murray had never heard of Whyte up until three months ago. Born in Motherwell, he moved to Monaco and became one of the youngest self-made Scottish millionaires of the 1990s. He is now based in London and Grantown-on-Spey, where he lives in Castle Grant, built in the 14th century and purchased by Whyte four years ago for £750,000.

Last week, Johnston met Whyte at a Glasgow hotel. Yesterday, sources at the club said the deal, barring any late hitches, could be completed before Christmas but it is more likely that it will be done by the middle of January. "We can't say with 100 per cent certainty," said a Rangers contact, "but Whyte has the money and is very convincing. We think the deal will happen."

Rangers manager Walter Smith said yesterday that if no takeover is completed he will be unable to sign even a loan player in January. He also ruled out a return to Rangers for Middlesbrough striker Kris Boyd.

"The situation we are in, as it stands presently, we can't get any player in, as much as we might get one or two saying they want to come back to us," Smith said.

http://sport.scotsman.com/rangersfc/Rangers-confident-Whyte-deal-can.6650426.jp?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

[H72 265]

Second article posted:

Tom English: Silence speaks volumes for great Whyte hope

Published Date: 05 December 2010

By TOM ENGLISH

They say it's the quiet ones you need to watch out for, not just in life but in the takeover of football clubs as well, it seems.

As soon as Graham Duffy proclaimed from the rooftops his vision for Rangers you may as well have shredded the notion he was a serious player. Nobody earnest about doing such a deal would ever go public in that manner. Secrecy is everything in that world. When Andrew Ellis revealed that once the formalities were completed he'd be offering Walter Smith a new three-year contract and Sir David Murray a role as life president, the warning lights started flashing again.

Craig Whyte's approach has been different to all the others who have flitted in and out of the Rangers ownership story over the past year. Whyte has said nothing. Up until the other day, when he was filmed arriving at the Hilton Hotel for talks with Rangers chairman Alastair Johnston, we only had a few pictures of him. And one of them - him standing by a wall with a load of yachts in the background - must have been about ten years old.

Many journalists have been on his tail for weeks now and nobody has pinned him down. Or, if they have, they've got nothing out of him. No boasts about what he'll do and how great it will all be. No grandstanding. Not a word. We don't know his motivation, his vision, or even what he sounds like. He remains a mystery.

By staying quiet and going about his dealings with Murray in a low-key way the suspicion hardened that Whyte was the real deal, maybe not a billionaire as first suggested when the story broke, but sufficiently wealthy to buy the club and take it forward.

That's not to say he will, but he might. He's advanced further down the road than Ellis ever got. Not only has he met Murray, he's also had a meeting with Johnston. Ellis never spoke to Johnston once throughout his humming and hawing.

One of the great puzzlers, of course, is why he is considering the takeover. Maybe it's an emotional purchase, a man buying a club he supported as a lad. From his perspective, he might see that there is glory to be had at Rangers at a decent price that can't be had in the Premiership for a multiple of the cost. Rangers will win trophies. They'll play in front of a full stadium. They might get some glamour nights in Europe. It is an affordable thrill to somebody with hundreds of millions in the bank.

That's the romantic view. Of course, there is another side to it, a more cynical side. Why would you pump money into a club if you haven't got a cunning plan in making a killing on your investment? Why plough tens of millions into Ibrox at a time when the winners of the SPL don't automatically qualify for the Champions League? If it's not a vanity purchase then the economics of the deal are strange. The fact that Whyte has revealed nothing merely adds to the intrigue.

On one side you have fans who desperately want to believe in him, one of their own who will spend money where it needs to be spent. On the other you have the doubters who see that scenario as too good to be true, who see ulterior motives in land deals and God knows what else. The truth is that nobody knows because Whyte has been a virtual recluse. He could give lessons in solitude to Trappist monks.

Things would appear to be on track as of now. It is said that a deal has been agreed in principle, which is a big leap forward. Until Whyte's people have completed their due diligence and made their offer, however, there are no guarantees.

And among a battery of uncertainties is the role being played by Ellis. The understanding is that Whyte felt obliged to Ellis for introducing him to the deal in the first place and then informing him of certain aspects of it. There is another understanding, however. Whyte, it is believed, has not been best pleased that Ellis has commented on the takever to the media. If Ellis is in on this deal to the tune of 25 per cent, as has been reported, you have to wonder why he didn't appear in Glasgow this week. It's legitimate to ask now whether Ellis is involved in any significant way - or is it all about Whyte now?

People are talking of a Whyte Christmas at Ibrox. Certainly, the man himself remains as elusive as Santa Claus.

http://sport.scotsman.com/rangersfc/Tom-English-Silence-speaks-volumes.6650431.jp

[RFC55 109,163]

Apparently Whyte and Murray met again yesterday and all seems well

EDIT - apparently this has been posted by a poster on FF and 1 other site! Not sure tho as i cant view FF without a log in and dont know what the other site is! Anyone got a login that can confirm this, or is it more attention seeking bullshit?

[bombaybadboy08 15,660]

Maybe it's nothing to do with the takeover and they just enjoy each others company

[RFC55 109,163]

Maybe it's nothing to do with the takeover and they just enjoy each others company

If you noticed my edit mate, are you able to check?

[bombaybadboy08 15,660]

If you noticed my edit mate, are you able to check?

Sorry mate replied before you edited that,I have a log in for FF but can't view anything so not been on in ages.

I lost my Virgin Media email address when I moved house so they restricted what I can do on ff .

Maybe Gersnet or DTB.

[RFC55 109,163]

Sorry mate replied before you edited that,I have a log in for FF but can't view anything so not been on in ages.

I lost my Virgin Media email address when I moved house so they restricted what I can do on ff .

Maybe Gersnet or DTB.

It may have been DTB but i cant view that in work for some reason lol

[bombaybadboy08 15,660]

It may have been DTB but i cant view that in work for some reason lol

Not Gersnet or DTB,just checked .

I'll check Vital Rangers,they're usually spot on with all their stories.

[RFC55 109,163]

Not Gersnet or DTB,just checked .

I'll check Vital Rangers,they're usually spot on with all their stories.

No doubt its a poster on FF then. So hopefully someone can verify this or not