Notts County: Businessman Alan Hardy submits takeover bid to owner Ray Trew

[ivansneck]

From the BBC:

Local businessman Alan Hardy has made a formal written offer to buy Notts County, BBC Radio Nottingham reports. Hardy will insist any agreement includes a clause that sees current owner and chairman Ray Trew settle any undisclosed debts and liabilities. Trew announced last month that he was looking to sell after his family were subjected to "foul and mindless abuse". HM Revenue & Customs has issued a winding up petition against the club, with the case adjourned until 25 April. Hardy is the chief executive of the Paragon Group, and owns the Nottinghamshire Golf and Country Club.

Analysis

Colin Slater - BBC Radio Nottingham correspondent

"Alan Hardy is not disclosing the size of the offer made against a background where chairman Ray Trew has reportedly been asking for between £8-£10m, with £5m paid up front

"Hardy has let it known he had no prior information that the club was facing a winding-up petition from HMC, or the size of the club's indebtedness to the tax authorities, with widely different figures are being quotes by different sources.

"The court hearing into HRMC's petition is adjourned until the 25th of April, seemingly given Trew less than 40 days to finalise a deal with new owners and suggesting a period of hard bargaining is imminent."

[Canadian]

Very Interesting. I hope it goes through. No, PLEASE go through!! 

[Who r ya?? You Pies!!]

48 minutes ago, Canadian said:

Very Interesting. I hope it goes through. No, PLEASE go through!! 

Go on A H , hope he is successful in the take over and can steady the turbulence and take the club forward , coyp 

[Piethagoram]

it is in general, a good policy when taking over companies,  that no matter how much due diligence, undeclared commitments and liabilities may still come to light

[DangerousSausage]

Fingers crossed that it's accepted. And it certainly is a good policy to include a clause to have the previous debts paid - Mr Trew's own takeover cost a lot more than he expected (although Munto/Peter Trembling weren't in a position to pay them off themselves).

[Chris]

Does the money owed make sense, when applied to the fact the clubs been alleged for sale since last November? I can appreciate that some of the comments can be stressful, unwarranted by 'some' fans but a tweet suggested 'Notts' may be going into Admin with a view to sell the club. Only since the protests has Mr Trew said he felt it was because of the abuse.

The point I'm trying to make is that I wished the club would remain clear and open.

If we are up for sale, we as fans should know.

Let's hope Alan Hardy is thrown in the deep end like Mr Trew was.

[Piethagoram]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p041jdqx

Interesting listening around 1h 12m mark. Typical shoddy reporting in that Colin doesnt actually say when the "Second" offer was made?

[Chris]

We don't need uncertainty over the season.

I see Colin quite bold with his comments, however I won't read much into this. That said there should be an official statement with regards to if the club is or isn't up for sale, if anything is to be believed by the 'most if not all' of his investment. I'm sorry but if you purchase something and don't really invest wisely, then I don't think 'most' should be the case let alone 'all'. Obviously speculation by Colin leads to this, however I don't think there's much seriousness about selling the club.

Why? If your selling, your selling. You don't change your mind, remain silent or use Twitter to build up hype around a false dawn.

I'm off to finish 'a race across the line' but really I'm just going to remain sat down - expect me to report back in a year or two's time.