Yngwie

Originally Battery Co had 1 share in issue, owned by ICT (so 100%) and which Morrison had security over. In March it issued 99 new shares, and the 3 individuals became persons of significant control - all per companies house. Morrison later stated in an interview that they took a third each. He also added that this generated £250k or £300k for the club, I can’t remember which.

The company is 2 months overdue in filing its annual return, so Companies House has started its process for compulsory strike off. It’s easily resolved, provided any of the directors know that it is their responsibility - ICT might not be doing it for them now that ICT only owns 1% of this company. Someone needs to act though.

I’m sure the ST will publish something here soon, but they have informed members of an email they sent to Makwana and his response, in which he is receptive to holding an open meeting in due course with them and fans, and in the meantime says he has already given an interview, that clearly hasn’t been published yet. Doesn’t say who it was with.

In answer to the question asked by Savage, and which we were all wondering too, as to why shareholders would give away their shares, I can now think of 2 reasons. 1. To save the club, if a new investor will only put money in if they gain control ie over 50%, which would likely be a condition of any purchaser. Let’s not forget that if we don’t get a cash injection very soon, the club goes into administration and may well get wound up. 2. Create a tax loss. Disposing of their shares for nothing triggers a capital loss, which can be offset against any future capital gains. This will likely be the only way our shareholders will ever generate a financial benefit from their shares in the club.

This bit in the interview with Savage is very significant and, if true, the only new news we have had on this deal in the last few days. Savage claimed: “I believe certain groups of shareholders have given their shares to Seventy7 to get its shareholding over 50%, as they are only buying 20% of the club. Why would they give shares to someone they don’t know? What’s in it for them?” Good question. If Savage is correct, it would have to be a number of our largest shareholders, well known names and big ICT fans, who decided to give their shares to the new investor. And to be clear, that would have been their decision, not SG’s or the Board’s.

In part, definitely, but remember too that we incur thousands of pounds a week in paying geographical premiums and/or accommodation costs and/or relocation costs, that central belt clubs aren’t faced with. We happily paid all that when we were living beyond our means and racking up huge losses season after season in the Championship, then reality kicked in and we had to cut costs.

I remember saying at the time that whilst Ferguson had a good reputation in coaching and it was an intriguing appointment, there was no evidence that he was a good manager. One year later, there is still no evidence that he is a good manager and indeed there is mounting evidence that he is absolutely terrible.

Yes I’d been through that and reached similar conclusions - although the limited info available publicly might not necessarily tell the full story. Worth pointing out as well that not all of those companies are his, he just is/was a director and not always the owner. For those who don’t know, dissolving a company is something that happens usually when a company has served its purpose and/or just isn’t required any more. There is nothing untoward about this as such and it is very different from insolvency. The American guy on that video, and others, wrongly seem to assume it is a sign of failure or dodginess. It can be, I guess, but it can also be the opposite - transfer business assets or intellectual property into a company, sell them for a profit and then dissolve the company before you have to publish accounts for the relevant year that show how much you made. A claim that appears in various websites that Makanwa “started, scaled and sold” numerous businesses. There is no evidence of that anywhere I looked. Maybe it is a misleading claim, or maybe the deals made him a lot of money and are just hidden through such legitimate means? I’d like to believe it was the latter, but when you see the house that is the registered office, it’s hard to believe he has a lot of personal wealth. Im guessing our Board, CEO and lawyers know how to use Google too and will have asked similar questions to the ones we are asking. Surely?

There are lots of unanswered questions - but just because we don’t know the answers doesn’t necessarily mean the answers will be as bad as you fear! Even if the Board are naive and have been seduced by the buzzwords, the club’s lawyers ought to be ensuring that normal business acquisition procedures are followed, which early on would include obtaining evidence of the availability of the necessary funds. One thing that nobody has pointed out yet is that of the 13 companies Makwana has ever been a director of, NONE of them have suffered any form of insolvency. For a ‘serial entrepreneur’, or fantasist if you prefer, that’s actually pretty good going!

None, that seems to have been misinformation from the rumour mill.

Erm, thanks for sharing! The only positive moment for us in the highlights is that we won a throw-in in the opposition half. (However, it resulted in Dundee being through on our goal seconds later)

Well, from 5-0 at HT, I'm pleasantly surprised we didn’t set a new record for heaviest ever defeat. And sadly that’s the best thing that can be said about this.

We urgently need a hedge fund!

This just emphasises the need to solutionise our gamification. Ferguson just doesn’t get it.

GET MAKWANA OUT!

New era off to a good start.

Spend £50 and get to come in as a sub? No names mentioned.

Interesting info and sounds perfectly plausible. Anyone brave or foolish enough to invest in a football club like us needs to have a way of getting a return, which certainly isn’t going to come from the current business model. Not sure if it was a deliberate and careful choice of words on your part regarding SG involvement, but him being ‘part of the plan’ could be very different to him remaining CEO of the footballing operation?

I might be doing a 2+2=5, but with Seventy7 focusing on creative industries, digital assets, blockchain blah blah blah, and with his inspiration from Wrexham too, is it all possible that he sees an opportunity to build a global online base of ‘subscribers’ for want of a better word, who would pay a fee to become stakeholders in some form, perhaps even (shudder) being able to vote on certain decisions regarding the team? Merging simulation games with the real world, in other words.

Ujdur to Queens Park now confirmed. I hope the “undisclosed fee’ is not zero.

People can be consultants rather than employees. But an investment/consultancy/facilitation business like this doesn’t really need many people.

He was just the stooge in that, wasn’t he? Anyway, latest info from Makwana makes it sound like Nelson was already monitoring the UK football market for opportunities and the press coverage of our demise put ICT on his radar. No idea what John Colquhoun does these days but interesting that he was used as a source of info on the club. I’d imagine he could readily pick up the phone to Robbo if he wanted a well informed view of the state of the club?

Oops, he tagged Central Highlands Regional Council (which is in Australia)! Trying to figure out why he would thank the council anyway for putting trust in him, it implies he’s had to liaise with them on something?

I doubt any of our Board would know where to start, whereas our CEO is more likely to have the knowledge and contacts to be able to tap into the market of people who facilitate football investments.