Oh well, if you insist. I had rather lost interest, and indeed lost track, of all the goings on, but must admit that I thought the debt had died with Priestfield Developments. I commented at the time that obviously a company cannot be voluntarily struck off with a net debt of £9.05m, which was the figure in the last published accounts for the year to 31st May 2015, and queried where the debt had gone. I posted this query on the Blues Rock Café board at the time, and the most sensible reason given by other (and more qualified) posters was (to the best of my memory) that a period of time had to pass before the debt could be considered as cancelled because of the possibility of the circumstances of the write off later being queried. So, very good, problem gone. But then it mysteriously turns up like unwanted and forgotten relative at a wedding in the 2017 GFC Holdings accounts. Ultimately this doesn't mean a great deal for GFC (the company). The accounts of Holdings show only a slightly worse situation in 2017 than they did when the last full accounts (2015) were made public, and the fact is that the debt is still not in GFC. The fact that it is in Holdings (100% owned by PS) rather than PD (now wound up, but until then 100% owned by PS) is neither here nor there, the fact of the matter is that we deceived ourselves into thinking that it had gone away (and I admit that I'm as guilty as anyone when it came to that). The knock on consequence of this is still that PS has a problem when he tries to sell the club. The actual valuation of a business is extremely subjective and based on a wide range of factors, and is therefore nigh on impossible to tie down exactly - how many times have we seen takeovers that have been in public awareness when one side puts a value on a business, and for others to put a significantly higher or lower value on the same business. The fact is that the net worth of GFC at 31st May 2017 was about £1.58m. And keep in mind that PS only owns 75% of GFC. Whatever is the value of the club on a sale basis, in my view it would be significantly less than the £12.07M that it would have to be sold for for for PS to be able to clear the £9.05m loan THAT IS IN HIS COMPANY. There are many mysteries surrounding this loan, not least of which are who gave it, and who is guaranteeing it. There appears to be no interest payable on it, and I assume that it is guaranteed as otherwise PS would simply have put PD into liquidation and wiped it out. I read somewhere that in an interview, I believe in August, that PS said that the club was now debt free. As that statement was made in the current (2018-19) financial year, the extent of veracity of that statement may not be known until the 2019 accounts are published, which should be by February 2020, and it will of course entirely depend on the Chairman's definition of debt. In the meantime we should see the 2018 accounts by the end of February next year, but if recent history is a guide, don't be upset if they're late. In the meantime Dack to somewhere for £25m plus in January would help things along a bit.
Tim It is indeed a mystery as to who is underwriting the debt (( more of a mystery that no interest or repayment is being required - at the moment ). I strongly suspect that Scally's the guarantor - - but -- no matter --- the debt may not be in the name of GFC , - but its' consequence is very much ours. Even if there was a 20% sell- on clause for Dack, £25 Million would give us £5 Million - not even half needed to repay the debtor ( Scally )……..... Perhaps he could resurrect his photocopy business - and print some cash.
