Portsmouth Admin

[Who Moved The Goalposts?]

I know it's not the fans fault, but have you read their threads on 606? Some are already talking about who they are going to sign next season as they will be able to pay every player 6.5-7K per week!! It's only a few, admittedly, but to them it would appear that reality is just something that happens to other people.

[PieEater]

The bit I learnt from the programme (assuming it was true) was that Gaydamak pulled a fast one in selling to al Fahim, as he was saying to everyone that he was selling to al Faraj. Also that al Faraj seemed to be mostly a front for Chainrai who loaned most of the money.

Peter Storrie claimed to be innocent and defended his fat salary and bonuses, but didn't appear to grasp his role curtailing their spiralling wage bill.

[wolsey]

Mr Adronikou continues to not cover himself in glory (well i suppose that his ego will enjoy the amount of telly time he's had:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/may/14/portsmouth-debt-administration-missing-funds

Good news for Portsmouth … Guardian finds missing £4m
A discrepancy in the administrator's report means that a company listed as being owed £1.99m by the club was in fact in debt to Pompey to the tune of £1.86m

The discovery means Portsmouth, who were £138m in debt are better off to the tune of £4m.

Portsmouth have endured a season of almost unremitting financial gloom, with mounting debts forcing them into administration, wages being paid late on several occasions and players set to be sold. But the Guardian can deliver a rare chink of good news ahead of tomorrow's FA Cup final after establishing the club are almost £4m better off than they thought.

Digger has discovered a surprising discrepancy in the administrator's report, establishing that a company listed as being owed £1.99m by Portsmouth was in fact in debt to the club to the tune of £1.86m.

Listed last month among the club's debts were liabilities totalling £1.99m to Canterbury Europe, Pompey's former sponsor and shirt supplier, which was described as a trade creditor.

But Digger went back to the statement of affairs prepared about Canterbury last September by KPMG after the company went into administration having racked up seven-figure losses on a series of expensive sponsorship deals it had struck with sports clubs including Portsmouth. It showed that, contrary to Pompey being a debtor, the Premier League club were owed £1,862,724.67.

Puzzled by the fact that Andronikou's report into Portsmouth's insolvency last month had transformed this into a debt to Canterbury, Digger contacted the joint administrator.

When asked to clarify the situation, Andronikou told the Guardian: "We have discovered that there is a debtor in our favour so the trade creditor figure will come down quite substantially."

It is highly unusual in any sponsorship agreement for a rights holder to become heavily indebted to one of its sponsors.

Canterbury Europe Ltd ceased trading in August 2009 after JD Sports bought its stock and staff from insolvency but JD is not listed as a Portsmouth creditor.

Digger later asked Andronikou to explain the near-£4m swing but did not receive a response. Nor did Andronikou outline whether the "quite substantial" change in circumstances means Canterbury will now be booked as a £2m debtor in his future reports.

Although £4m is a tiny figure in the context of Portsmouth's £138m debt, it could be highly significant in the club's attempt to exit administration.

It is not expected that HM Revenue & Customs, which is listed in Andronikou's April report as being owed £17.1m in unpaid tax and PAYE, will support his Company Voluntary Arrangement. That proposes that unsecured creditors should receive 20p in the pound of what they are owed over five years.

Every pound a creditor is owed equates to a vote in the creditors' ballot and if HMRC is successfully to block the CVA it must secure 25% of the total votes against the process. Last week Andronikou told a meeting of creditors that the taxman's claim had risen to £35m against total debts of £138m – or 25.36%.

Should the total debt now fall to £134m due to the discrepancy, that would lift HMRC's entitlement in the vote to 26.1%.

Andronikou's past record as an insolvency practitioner has not been without controversy. In December 2008 he was found by the high court to have "failed to meet the standard to be expected of a reasonably competent insolvency practitioner" during an insolvency process.

When Digger contacted Andronikou about this some weeks ago he stated that he had conducted hundreds of insolvencies and only once had his conduct been criticised by the courts.

HMRC declined to comment yesterday and KPMG did not return Digger's call.

[Deadlock]

I wonder how many more of these there are, pushing the level of indebtedness up.

[Dirk Gently]

I wonder how many more of these there are, pushing the level of indebtedness up.

I think what's much more significant about this isn't the level of indebtedness - it's the proportion of indebtedness between different creditors.

[Deadlock]

Oh, absolutely. Like when a certain bearded chairman of a certain northern football club suddenly found lots of extra debt owed to one of his companies, meaning that the proportion of debt owed to HMRC was marginally below 25% and they couldn't block a CVA. Of course, nobody would seriously suggest that Portsmouth were trying to do anything like that.

[exileinleeds]

Oh, absolutely. Like when a certain bearded chairman of a certain northern football club suddenly found lots of extra debt owed to one of his companies, meaning that the proportion of debt owed to HMRC was marginally below 25% and they couldn't block a CVA. Of course, nobody would seriously suggest that Portsmouth were trying to do anything like that.

Of course not, that would be tax evasion, which is illegal.

[Barry the bird boggler]

As I recall in this very thread HRMC have fined Cheatsmouth for late payment and therefore doubled the amount they are owed, therefore they are now a very significant creditor and have to give approval to any CVA

Here's hoping they hang them out to dry.....

[TFF]

Portsmouth creditors have been offered potentially 99 pence in the pound - a figure far in excess of the one on the table from the administrator.

Pompey administrator Andrew Andronikou is offering a maximum 25p in the pound.

The rival offer has been put together by Insolvency experts Griffins, which represents some of Pompey's creditors.

Griffins says creditors could receive a minimum 65p in the pound, but if former owner Sacha Gaydamak drops his £32m claim against Pompey that rises to 99p.

"Those that caused or presided over the period that gave rise to this situation ought to bear much of the cost of putting it right," says the Griffins proposal.

If and when Portsmouth emerge from a Company Voluntary Agreement (CVA) - which allows them to exit administration - the club will be run under new ownership, while the 'old club's' conduct in the run-up to administration would be investigated by a liquidator.

Griffins' proposal refers to the possibility that Gaydamak could be liable for a claim of over £50m if there was evidence he had breached his duties - for example if he was found to have allowed Portsmouth to trade while insolvent before entering administration.

"Griffins are waving a big stick at Gaydamak," insolvency lawyer Guy Thomas of SA Law LLP told BBC Sport. "They are saying: 'If there is a claim against Gaydamak and he acts generously now, voting for this proposal, why would any liquidator come after you?'"

Andronikou's proposal, which has the premise that the club need money to return to the Premier League, lasts five years with 75% of unsecured creditors needing to support it to gain approval.

Andronikou of UHY Hacker Young, has offered 20p in the pound, rising to 25p if the club is promoted.

Griffins' proposal is based on the principle that Pompey's creditors, who have funded the struggling club over the last few years, should have the first claim to the future income generated by the club.

That future income - available to either the club or creditors - includes parachute payments that relegated clubs receive as well as television rights money and player sales.

Griffins also wants a "clear link between the club and the money it gets from fans so that the fans can understand how they can help their club in the future."The Griffins offer would allow for a budget of a mid-table championship side with a squad of 25 players.

In April, Portsmouth's administrators revealed that the relegated Premier League club's debts stood at £119m, up from a figure of £60m-£70m in February when the club became the first in the Premier League to enter administration.

"It's the creditors' choice how and when the club will emerge from administration, not the current administrators," added Thomas.

"If, having considered both documents carefully, they choose Griffins' analysis over Andronikou's then they will likely reject the current administrator's CVA proposal.

"Like UHY Hacker Young - Andronikou's firm - Griffins is a professional insolvency firm. One looking to "retain" an existing appointment and the other looking to gain new ones. They say competition is a good thing, hopefully this one will end up benefiting the creditors."

The creditors are due to meet on 17 June to vote on the CVA with Portsmouth needing the support of 75% of creditors to have it approved.

Failure to secure a CVA could result in the club incurring future points deductions in the Football League.

The BBC understands that Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, who say they are owed £35m by Portsmouth, will vote against Andronikou's proposal to take Pompey out of administration, arguing that the amount does not offer a suitable return for taxpayers.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 724793.stm

Interesting. Could Gaydamak shoulder the loss? Under that bent fella's proposal he only stands to get £6.4M anyway. Could he write that off?

[Tony Le Mesmer]

Creditors due to meet today.

[exileinleeds]

They have accepted 20p in the pound- Pompey can now come out of Admin and buy them selves out of this league.

Absolute oxf*rd. Hope HMRC stay really tough on them

[Barry the bird boggler]

Disgusting! So that means that the HMRC did not have enough share to vote then? Or if they did were just out voted? Apparently they have 28 days to appeal - let's hope they can put a cast iron case together and do just that.

[Tony Le Mesmer]

This is just fcking sick.

Meanwhile Salisbury City, despite paying every penny (albeit late), get relegated 2 divisions.

What is the point in it all?

[TFF]

Gutted

Today's hearing revealed that the Inland Revenue's claim went up from £17m to £37m. But administrators managed to reduce their claim to £24m

Looks like HMRC have been outmanoeuvred.

"HMRC notes that the result of today's vote was to accept the CVA proposals. We will now be carefully considering our position," it said.

"HMRC stands by the full amount of its claim (£37m). We will now carefully consider our position following (the club's) decision to reduce the amount of our claim for voting purposes."

The fight goes on...

[kieran]

you lot are obsessed with Pompey - little man syndrome?

[exileinleeds]

you lot are obsessed with Pompey - little man syndrome?

No, law abiding tax payers who object to tax revenues being stolen by irresponsible companies.

[kieran]

and before that, say 2 years ago? 5 years ago? 10 years ago?

[Baines]

Portsmouth Admin
sawyers left arm on 26 Feb 2010 13:03

[Hoop Blah]

and before that, say 2 years ago? 5 years ago? 10 years ago?

Pompey are a very similar club to ours, who are relatively local to us and who we've competed with to varying degree's over the years. They get discussed on here about as much as the likes of Brighton, Southampton, Oxford and 'the big 4.'

With the events of the last 18 months down there it isn't surprising that one of the football news stories of the year kicks off a lot of debate.

...throw in the fact that you lot have a massively over inflated opinion of yourselves, often coming here to prove it, and that it's such a pikey club and it's a no brainer you get good coverage here!

[Dirk Gently]

you lot are obsessed with Pompey - little man syndrome?

No, the first Premier League club to go into Administration is bound to be a topic of interest to everyone.