Takeover rumours heating up!

Yesterday there was a public presentation by Straumur where they presented what has been going on with their debt during the first 6 months of moratorium, and what their plans are for the future if they are trusted with an extension of the moratorium by the Icelandic court this Friday.

Even though rumors about Gold and Sullivans interest in West Ham has been going on since last summer, the last week or so a rumor has been growing that David Gold and David Sullivan was to table a bid this week. This offer to Andrew Bernhardt, or rather Straumur, supposedly consists of a “nominal fee” for West Ham while accepting to take over the debt.
Today this rumor exploded in articles by WH owner linked Burt of the Telegraph, the Mirror and on the BBC website.
To me there is a nice connection between these two events.

Straumur painted a picture stretching over 5 years during which they hoped to regain some or most of the money owed. What is clear is that they are planning on this process taking time and rather find more funds later than less fund now. One reason for this prolonged process is that by doing it this way the so called “unsecured claimholders” will likely regain more of their money.

Another bit of info seemed to be apparent in the presentation – that Straumur has no funds to inject to boost any needing company – hence Straumur should be interested in help to do so.

Enter Gold&Sullivan. If what they have leaked to the press is accurate they are willing to take on the debt of the Club and to pay the current owners a “nominal fee” for a controlling post in the Club and an option to buy the remaining share “at a later date”. The willingness of the current owners to let a part of the Club go at this time probably lies in how this option is designed. G&S are also to inject some transfer funds to build the value of the Club and secure premiership survival. Some rumors say that in addition to this the current owners will be handed continuous payments during the period up to a certain date or their sale of the remaining share, whichever comes first.

To me this makes a lot of sense. That’s why I have fallen into the trap of commenting on it. Straumur reduces its risk of having a debt ridden Championship side in their asset portfolio without being able to do anything about it while securing a future payment through the option.

Having said this, the current owners must still, obviously, be prepared to turn Gold and Sullivan down if the offer is just too low to make financial sense, or perhaps if an offer from the Intermarket Group is for some reason preferable...