Takeover Rumours

Rahic did that not Rupp.

 

His reward for delivering success.

i dont expect owners to work for free and not take dividends if we are enjoying success

I said it at the time but the Lawn/Rhodes era, with Parky at the helm, was the golden era. Punching above our weight with magical cup runs, achieving a promotion, and having a team full of unforgettable characters…… and we were paying ridiculously cheap ST prices to get in and see it. Packed houses for the cup games too. Magical times.

Yes he was outspoken but Lawn had ambition and we gambled within reason to improve our squad. Not this pathetic situation we are trapped in now from the bean counters.

 

Rupp was responsible for allowing him to do that. It took a fan to travel to Germany and meet with Rupp to point out what Rahic was doing. No excuse for Rupp for not realising this

Since Rahic left, we have actually got even worse too under Rupp.

 

I believe Mark Lawn provided in 2008 a loan of £1m, about £1.4m in today’s money and charged 9% interest. A significant proportion of his wealth provided to a business not long out of administration. The club probably couldn’t have got such favourable terms on the commercial market.

Stefan has loaned about €2m, it’s interest free but he apparently takes €25,000 a month management fee or whatever it is called. Perfectly normal, the business I work for does the same to its owners.

Before we start praising Stefan Rupp’s altruism, work out what’s a better deal, £1m at 9% interest or €2m interest free with a €300kpa management fee.

I’m not judging either, both scenarios make business sense. But before you criticise Mark or Stefan, and there is fair criticism of both to be had as there is praise, look at the bigger picture.

 

Hi Dennis, I assumed the £1.76m quoted by Dewhirst on WOAP was €2m. From that article I understood there was a £1.76m loan and a £200k short term injection to ease cash flow which was paid back from the money from Swansea. John says there are no repayment plans to pay back the director’s loan, I assume therefore McBurnie money went into clearing any overdraft, budget shortfall for that FY and to provide a cash buffer for day to day operations.

I’m not naive enough to believe a John Dewhirst article presumably approved by Julian Rhodes gives everything away. I agree that full accounts would provide transparency and help to shine a light on the financial role that Stefan is playing. Whether that is a favourable light is anyone’s guess and you can draw conclusions in that if you so wish from the publication of abbreviated accounts. In my opinion if Stefan wants to help himself a bit, some more transparency around the finances might help assuage arguments as to why the squad is as poor as it is.

 

Where does this £25k a month management fee come from?

 

If you are including the management fee when comparing the loans surely to be fair you have to look at anything else the Lawn family got as well, so any ‘wages’ or anything else. I don’t know if they did take anything else out but surely if you are comparing then at least compare the same package.

 

has there been a change on the level of overdraft that we are using? As someone suggested it had been used to pay that off?

 

Mark Lawn offered the loan interest free but was refused by Rhodes who was the major share owner with his father who insisted on a interest rate of 9% above bank rate, Lawn would have given it interest free

 

Not sure he took that much out apart from the interest on the loan which was forced on him by Rhodes

 

Why the hell would Rhodes do that?

 

Because Rhodes was worried that if it could not be paid back that Lawn could insist on shares in leu of repayment

 

he could have donated the interest back

 

surely that would only be an issue if it was in the agreement? If it was just an unsecured loan he would be in the queue with the rest

 

not sure. Was just questioning what someone else said

 

Maybe he did on team rebuilding or other areas but what he does with his money is up to him,

 

Would depend on the terms but it was Rhodes himself who at the time said Lawn was happy as an interest free loan and that he (Rhodes) had insisted it was on commercial rates, Maybe @Dennis may have more on this