Worcester - new owners

[jimKRFC]

Think maybe it deserves it's own thread: http://warriors.co.uk/2018/10/01/worces ... ownership/

Speaking to Swindon fans and reading about McCrory this does not fill me with hope. faithful City, Wuss unoffical site, has done some digging (pictures borrowed from him).

The website of the managment group is pretty dredful - https://www.brookspope.com/our-team/

"Lesley Heron, has been in property development for encrouching two decades. Her specialities lie in both the residential and commercial properties. Previously, she has advanced the corporate world with her lonjevity in project management of exceeding ten years. She has now taken on the role as Property Management Consultant where her wealth of skills married with her bounteous expertise in this area will indubitably prove greatly advantageous to the objectives we so pride ourselves in at Brooks Pope & Co."

Pope himself has no indication of where the asking price ~£27M and £5M annual costs are coming from:


The company taking over is two years old and looks unable to finance this:


This has the makings of a troubled time for Wuss to me.

[Puja]

Great research Jim.

Is Sixways on prime development area? I'd be worried they'd defund the club into the Championship, call in their loans, and then wander off with the land.

Puja

[Tigersman]

:Gulp:

Makes me a bit worried about their future.
Wonder if they are hoping this potential buyout happens and if not the worry about selling sixways starts to grow.

Really struggle to see why they would want to invest in a rugby club when they have no previous links to one and a pretty poor track record.

[jimKRFC]

Puja, it's a guy called Faithful City's digging, he (and a few others) are very sceptical about McCrory's involvement. McCrory has been involved in various football clubs and it's been a nightmare for all of them.

I think Worcester/Sixways ways comes with 20odd (maybe more) achers of land right by the M5, currently fields but if you had a team of people invovled in property & law then it would be fairly straight forward to get permission to build there.

[Tigersman]

Wonder if he has been blackballed by Football completely now?

one point he was being linked to takeovers all over the country.

[jimKRFC]

He certainly doesn't come across as a Craig or Lansdowne....

This is an odd statement about investing, can't work out quite what they mean:

"The new owners are committed to keeping the club at Sixways and investing above a certain threshold into the rugby budget."

[fivepointer]

"The new owners are committed to keeping the Club at Sixways and investing above a certain threshold into the rugby budget.

They have plans to further develop the Sixways site to generate additional income, with the intentions of making the Club self-sustainable and achieving long-term success both on and off the field"

Buy the club and the associated land, put up houses, or hotels, or smart office space and make a tidy buck.
I suspect the rugby will be an afterthought. Just what is a "a certain threshold" This strikes me as a golden development opportunity first and foremost.

[Mellsblue]

Yep, sounds like they’re in it to get their lb of flesh. If they leave a sustainable club behind then, although it’s not the perfect arrangement, it may be a good thing in the long term. Somewhere in the back of my mind I think the previous owners had a very similar plan. I wonder why this lot are (believed to be) more able to see it through.

[jimKRFC]

The site is 50 acres it seems - get a lot of houses on that sort of space.

Think the name Tommy Agombar might surface somewhere. It does seem more about the money than the club.

Jed McCrory was it seems also keen to buy Northampton Football club and was interested in Birmingham Solihull Moors at around the time JLR were looking to expand.

Guess whos' ground was suitable to build on....

[Mellsblue]

According to the times:
Dave Seymour is a member of the consortium
The current chairman will remain and has said that remaining at Sixways was a condition of the sale
Duckworth remains as president of the club

[Scrumhead]

Yeah - I saw that too. At least Seymour provides a credible rugby link and knowledge of the Premiership.

Bristol have performed above my expectations, but I still don’t think it’s a given that Worcester will go down. Their results so far have shown that they’re almost always competitive and they are consistently picking up bonus points. Clearly that’s no substitute for wins, but they’ve also shown they can beat most sides at Sixways.

Their academy has been doing great work in recent years and they have a core that includes some very good players. Te’o and Adams will be off in the summer regardless of where they finish, but if they stay up and can reinvest that money well (not that Te’o’s given them any kind of ROI), they have the potential to get better.

If they go down, they’ll most likely lose their best players but with the academy still churning out some gems, they could start again in the Championship with a home grown team that could be a strong outfit in the medium term. Ringfencing is a massive risk though.

[Puja]

You'd have to say Sale look most in danger this season. Bristol have led every game at half-time and, with Piutau still to come back and little international disruption, you'd expect them to convert some of those bonus points into wins.

Puja

[Stom]

You'd have to say Sale look most in danger this season. Bristol have led every game at half-time and, with Piutau still to come back and little international disruption, you'd expect them to convert some of those bonus points into wins.

Puja

Faf will have a huge impact on Sale, he's the one who makes them tick.

But they're still very light in the tight-5. Probably the weakest in the league. I don't get the Ashton signing, tbh.

[Scrumhead]

I’m somewhere in between. Faf will make a difference but their lack of tight 5 forwards definitely limits how much clean, quick ball he’s going to get.

They also don’t have a proper back-up for MacGinty. Either James steps in like he did last week or Faf moves out to 10 as he did at times last season. Neither is ideal.

TBH I think everything from 1st and 2nd downwards is going to be very hard to call.

[Stom]

I’m somewhere in between. Faf will make a difference but their lack of tight 5 forwards definitely limits how much clean, quick ball he’s going to get.

They also don’t have a proper back-up for MacGinty. Either James steps in like he did last week or Faf moves out to 10 as he did at times last season. Neither is ideal.

TBH I think everything from 1st and 2nd downwards is going to be very hard to call.

I do think there will be a bit of evening out as the season progresses. But I do agree in the main. Add Wasps in 3rd, mind.

[jimKRFC]

After 5 days there's still no offical statements from the "consortium" & the twitter account is moaning about fake news.... There's been some more digging into the new owners and it's glum reading:

ome more background.

A charge has now been filed at Companies House, which WRFC Trading Ltd has executed in favour of Link Corporate Trustees (UK) Limited.

I've only had a quick read of the document but the following appears to have happened/is intended:

1. The land at Sixways, including Cummins Farm, the other side of the cut, has been transferred to a company called MQ Property Co Limited, co. no. 11472994, incorporated on 19 July 2018, sole director one Gerard McCrory, sole shareholder Militibus Quanco Ltd (sole share holde GM)

2. MQ Property Ltd has given an option to lease the land to Link Corporate Trustees (UK) Ltd.

3. Link Corporate Trustees (UK) Ltd is going to lease the land to WRFC Trading Ltd, in 3 parcels: Cummins Farm; the Park and Ride carpark; the rest of the land at Sixways.

4. The charge document provides security to Link Corporate Trustees (UK) Ltd for WRFC Trading Ltd's obligations under the 3 leases referred to in point 3, by giving them a charge over the P shares.

5. The charge agreement refers to a share security agreement to be entered into by WRFC Trading Ltd in favour of Close Brothers Finance plc. This agreement is also in relation to the P shares and both agreements give Close Brothers priority over Link Corporate Trustees (UK) Ltd up to a maximum of £4m.

6. One of the events that would allow Link Corporate Trustees (UK) Ltd to enforce the charge and exercise their power of sale is relegation from the Premiership.

I should emphasis that the above is my interpretation of the document based on a quick read of it, so I may have misunderstood the effect and meaning of some of the terms.

It seems to me, however, that the whole of the site has been sold to MQ Property Company Ltd: whether that's the freehold or a very long leasehold could only be confirmed by looking at the Land Registry records.

It also seems that the money has been provided by at least two funders: Close Brothers Finance plc and Link Corporate Trustees (UK) Ltd. There may well be others, who will take more traditional charges on the land; we will have to wait to see what else gets filed.

So it's coming across as if GM used Errol Popes name to raise money to buy Worcester, has then handed all the land & assets over to banks and venture capital companies (Link & Close brothers), securing the debt on the P shares. There seems to be no bag of money to invest in the club, or more worryingly, cover the current operating loses.