Significant Barriers to Conclusion of Moshiri and 777 Partners 'agreement'

Just look at some of the ownerships in the Premier League. Perhaps, they will get approval because they are not responsible for any capital punishments, murders etc?

On a brighter note, I take it that your posting today indicates you are feeling better and hopefully on the mend. Thank you as always, and just maybe one day you will be able to report on some positive financial news.

1) The FCA are going to dig very deeply into 777's financial bona fides.
2) Both Rights & Media Funding and MSP have to approve said takeover.
3) ESDHC needs continual funding, as do our current negative operating costs, and 777's liquidity must prove sufficient to meet these needs.

The Esk, as usual, is spot on. "We shouldn't be wasting time thinking 777 Partners provide any of the required solutions, nor even that they will achieve their objective of ownership."

I think we badly need a White Knight.

In particular, is it possible a leveraged buyout may be deemed legitimate by the FCA but not by the Premier League which now has a ceiling on leveraging of 2/3rds of the value of the purchase? And what extent would that rule stand up to legal challenges by the prospective purchaser?

I think any White Knight will need to have pockets as deep as Jim Radcliffe.

Rights and Media Funding Limited have also indicated their satisfaction with the agreement between Everton Football Club and 777 🔵
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Contrary to reports earlier this week, the DCMS (Govt) have no issues over the proposed takeover of Everton Football Club by 777 🔵

Reading your analysis, there seems to be a belief that both parties know it's not going to happen, who benefits?

I was expecting a couple of chinks of light from your article but it seems all one-sided, do you believe there's no scenario where 777 Partners could succeed?

I'm not intending this as a pop at you, but it was only a couple of days ago that you were claiming, “Despite all reports there is nothing imminent with 777 partners. I cannot be clearer than that.” So, you're obviously not in the loop here.

Several stories today state that ‘sources close to the deal' have said Rights and Media Funding are ‘satisfied' with the arrangement. Their previous concerns were said to have revolved around the fact that MSP was not putting enough money into the club in return for the equity it was due to receive (25%). That doesn't automatically translate to them having a problem with a full buyout from another party, does it?

Even if they do have a problem with it, they don't possess the power to ‘block' any deal but rather have a right to demand repayment in full of its debt. We don't know the breakdown of any deal or how much money 777 Partners are supposed to be chucking at it.

Whether or not they have the required funds is the real issue here and, despite the track record of fuckwittery at the top, one would think some assurances and evidence of such would surely have been sought by a man trying to claw back what he can before any agreement was reached and announcements made. Surely?

I mean, Bill must have filled him in on how that bloke in a bedsit he nearly sold out to bedazzled him with the fact he carried around a fancy briefcase, with the whole charade only coming to light when, like Alan Partridge, he patted the leathery bastard, it popped open and all that fell out was a copy of Practical Pig Keeping and a packet of crisps.

I'm very interested in where this information could possibly have come from though:

“My understanding is that little or no cash will change hands initially and that the final price paid for Farhad Moshiri's shares will be subject to several conditions including the result of the Premier League's independent commission enquiry and Everton's performance on the pitch including survival in the Premier League in season 2023-24.”

So he effectively agrees a sale now for a final amount to be determined some 8 months later and dependent upon both on- and off-field fortunes?

How can that possibly fly with the sums at stake?

I hope you are feeling much better, thank you for an excellent perspective which frankly does not bode well for the club or the supporters. After my initial relief that the end of a horrendous period of years for the club, the fears of jumping out of the frying pan into the fire are very real.

But I cannot help but think there is much not disclosed in the background. The MSP deal for 25% of the club for £150M fell through because, we are told, Rights and Media Funding were not happy with the implied valuation of the club at what would be £600M. This current deal is for a lot less, so why would they be okay with it?

The ongoing funding is also crucial, even without the new staadium, the cash burn far exceeds cash flow. We need more income and less costs, in normal business that usually means a company is cut back to the bone.

Given that is not an option, the only other way is debt. 777 may be asset rich but they are cash poor. So a long-term loan arrangement for equity with MSP or a 777 Saudi PCP may be a guaranteed side letter to the agreement.

This raises conflict-of-interest issues, insolvency and exactly how they intend to get rewards for investors. None of which means there is a bucket of cash for the future.

The only way I see all this happening is if 777 Partners secure cash for running the business until the stadium is built; it's then sold and leased back to the club on the never-never... a large-scale asset strip.

777 in the meantime do what they know best, leverage a large fanbase for every penny, make the football side pay for itself by operating within its means. Result being a large base to exploit, a return on initial expenditure through stadium sale and lease back, (pays off creditors if need be).

And of course the company valuation would be probably the same, if in then good working order, and after they had pocketed from the sale of the stadium... Yep, a good old asset strip... distressed sale from a distressed owner. It's how companies make money.

Despite all of the above, we would be the jewel in the crown for 777. For the team, I think it's a concentration of youth and consolidation. The step up to competing with the top table is through 777... we will have a much better-run club but not an elite one; that would be Part 2.

Most times no matter our personal expertise, we can get things wrong, either because we have a blind spot in relation to an individual or group, or because we didn't have the full picture set out before us.

At the end of the day, unless we are in the room with the decision-makers, we can only offer an opinion, perhaps sometimes an educated opinion, but only an opinion nevertheless.

I'm convinced we would be in a much better place and in a healthier state if Moshiri was not taken in by Billy Bullshit. He provided the money he promised but the mismanagement at board level was astounding to say the least.

God knows what yarns Billy Bullshit spun him but they must've been believable, Moshiri is (imo) only culpable of being a naive fool.

Another linked a Telegraph report saying that there are performance related clauses in the deal. I assume that means, should the worst happen and Everton dropped out of the Premier League, then it would be cheaper for 777. That's just a guess on my behalf, hopefully, somebody can find Boscombe's piece on the Telegraph website.

The media in general are seemingly against this deal happening, for whatever reason. Perhaps Bill doesn't like the potential new owners and he's using his influence with the media to get his point across – who knows?

Surely that would mean the public announcement would be something like "agreement in principle reached contingent on passing the fit and proper tests".

I haven't heard any reports saying anything other than "done deal" which suggests those involved have insider knowledge… or they're deluded as hell.

In retrospect, you might be spot on.

Paul the Esk also about a week ago said there was no evidence the mooted loan from MSP had even happened, then a few days ago he said "Oh yeah it did."

He also said months ago the sale with MSP had been agreed. So whatever his sources, they don't seem to know more than anybody else. His number crunching is good but his insights into the goings on seem to be amiss.

I respect your opinion and would ask, what, in your view, is best for us? Can you offer a bit of hope? Might you be mightily wrong?

I always go back to that AGM when Kenwright was gushing in his praise of Moshiri, calling him the man who keeps giving.

Yet Kenwright, along with a few more, didn't hesitate to rush in and spend his wealth with hardly any thought of how they were spending it or with any plan or organisation in what they were putting together in what sort of team they were building.

A fool and his money was really taken to the cleaners season after season and none of them giving him any sensible advice.

He always writes in an understandable way about the dark financial morass those at our top have deliberately created, and expand ever since day one of Moshiri's involvement. He works with the best information available to him albeit some of it may be "hearsay". He can hardly be criticized for ever having overstated the now emerging depth of the well of despair into which we've been plunged from within, can he?

So what if he, like others in 2016, expressed no adverse opinion on Moshiri. Who could have? He was an unknown enigma with the close financial association of a very dodgy Russian.

Who at that time knew he'd turn out to be Kenwright's puppet too - and get fucked over too, just like Kenwright always does to us true Toffees?

I accept that Paul does provide a very valuable service to us the fans, particularly when scrutinising the accounts and other such business matters, and most of us are truly grateful to him for that insight.

But that doesn't mean that he can't be challenged or that we should accept fully his interpretations of what will transpire in the future. All views can and should be questioned. I'm sure that Paul will come along, fairly soon, to give his informed reply to the questions posed.

But he owns 94% of the club. So do the other 6% of owners get to call the shots on the basis they didn't decide to sell their shares?

Seems like a peculiar suggestion. If the deal has been agreed what "conflict" is there in Moshiri hanging around waiting to see if it actually happens?

What's he going to do tap the genius of Bill Kenwright and use that knowledge to bankroll another club?

Although you won't find much evidence of caution on forums when Moshiri bought in the popular cry being mindless cries of "we're rich" and salvation guaranteed. But I think there was a goodly amount who quietly sat back and thought, "Let's wait and see…"

Certainly my view.

I imagine Paul, means that Moshiri should resign from the board as he recently became a board member, but perhaps, I'm incorrect?

Seven years ago, I said on TW that his reported wealth was mid-table at best, when compared to the owners of other Premier League clubs, but by Christ has he massively underachieved on even that.

As fans, perhaps we were complicit in the naïveté gripping the club in those early years. Concerns about the fees offered for individual players were often met with comments like ‘Why worry, it's not our money!'

Looking back, we had an owner, chairman and board too eager to excite the fans and the media circus with a series of eye-catching purchases which ultimately proved disastrous.

We needed somebody within the club, probably a cold-hearted, unsentimental and unpopular chief executive, to press the pause button and ask ‘What are we doing here? Does it make sense?' Sadly the club had nobody of that calibre in the summer of 2017 or in the years which followed.

777 will pay a set amount to Farhad Moshiri for Everton, but there are factors by which that figure can rise and fall depending on Everton's on- and off-field progress. [@_pauljoyce]

It would seem that Farhad is very anxious to rid himself of Everton, he appears to be giving 777 a lot of leeway, that would suggest that 777 are the only game in town?

"It turned out nobody did."

Not only that but it appears that Moshiri significantly contributed by allowing too many cooks to spoil the broth.

Very much wrong man, wrong place and wrong time.

It would seem Usmanov… sorry, Moshiri is happy to get any money back from EFC, be it on the drip, stadium return or annual payments, anything at all as long as they are rid of the millstone that is Everton and their new stadium… "Pease, someone take this mess off us and give us what you can."

Usmanov can afford the loss, he's 80 odd and will be happy to part with his error.

Isn't that an unusual idea? Kenwright didn't go anywhere during or after Moshiri talks, ditto Ken Bates etc. I can't think of a precedent for it.

I am certain that 777 Partners are trying to bluff their way across the poker table, which at least 1 of the 3 regulatory bodies would not be fooled.

So, nothing happened and let's move on!

Link

The plot thickens.

The timing of when Everton suddenly became piss poor tallies up with Putin's mates getting sanctioned.

Bit if it was passed, as Everton would be 1/8, of the 777, collection of clubs, how would Everton get direct support for their operational needs on and off the park?

Seems like a business case , for any need, will Everton be indirectly supporting other clubs in their collection - Hertha Berlin, or Vasco de Gama, or vice versa?

I hope Everton FC, can move onto better times, and also keep BMD, as owners.

Beat Arsenal, is the most pressing need.

UTFTs!

Usmanov was 70 last week, not nearly 80.

Only 2 options, recapitalise with even more debt and/or fleece the fans.

This won't end well.

It sounds like a house of cards. I want to be optimistic but I am really struggling to be anything but negative about this takeover. I look forward to the analysis of the transparency and detail that they have promised. Maybe that will give us guarantees and assurance.

https://news.italy24.press/local/669474.html

777 is a done deal as money talks and bullshit walks… In their minds, 777 Partners have just bought an asset that will guarantee 50k-plus bums on seats every 2 weeks. Their #1 priority is to milk every penny in corporate sales, food and beveages, and as much of everything else as possible from the new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock.

They wanna turn Everton and the stadium into a money-making machine – to be fair, that part of our club has always been rubbish. They obviously want us to get results on the pitch because that will increase revenue; however, what is concerning is that, if we do go down, they will pay less money to Moshiri, so that's not a great incentive to get results - which shouldn't and may not be allowed.

I was told by some cockneys that the revenue from the Spurs stadium was massive compared to playing income – and basically helps mitigate the Financial Fair Play rules cos it's all income. 777 Partners are going to turn the new stadium into Disneyland – dead expensive but a lot of fun – for the corporate groups and tourists who wanna watch a Premier League match or tour the stadium.

Not so good for the average 90% of season ticket holders, most of whom don't spend any real money at the ground, probably because you can't!

If they get it right, they will spend on players, but only after the new stadium starts bringing in significant revenue and that's far from guaranteed given the current fanbase (very few of us with more than a pot to piss in) compared to the global wealthy fanbase of the dark side.

It's going to be a lot more for season ticket holders to go the match in the not-to-distant future… and I mean a lot more. The stadium will end up being a Trojan Horse or a life saver, but something had to change when the Russian money disappeared!

Did Kenwright have a clause? Was an outright sale the only way to free himself from the clutches of the biggest curse in Everton’s entire history?

Since Bill Kenwright came on board at Everton, speculation has been the order of the day, and this latest deal, has got even more speculation about it, than anything that has gone on before.

I was as shocked as The Esk seemed to be, when I heard the news we had been sold to 777, because I’ve been getting informed that there was at least one other American investment group trying to buy Everton, under the same terms (complete ownership) and Alan Myers only tweeted last week about there also being interest from Asia, but we were definitely going under, with Moshiri at the helm, so let’s see if these new owners can, plug up the holes in the Everton Dam?

After Peter Johnson and Bill Kenwright, then the last thing I want is local businessmen, Paul, although it did seem like Andy Bell and George Downing, were going to be good additions to the Everton boardroom.

Is it fair to say that anyone would be a good addition to the Everton boardroom though, when you look at the disgusting way we have been operating since the man who kept on giving, got on board?

In the end Moshiri, had become a mirror image of the man he bought Everton football club from, because once his tap had been turned off he never had the money to do “anything”, especially because he was already hamstrung with building the new stadium on the dock.

Kenwright on the other hand never had a tap, so he got his friends in the media to help change the reality of what was plucky little Kenwright (hang in there because there’s loads of money to be made) into plucky little Everton.

When Kenwright finally leaves, it is genuinely going to be one of the saddest days in my life, because when you look back at his Everton tenure, it will be very clear how much a lot of Evertonians got kidded and actually started celebrating stagnation. (Excitable rant over!)

This group were allegedly paying everything up front, and I was told the total cost was going to be around £1 billion, when the money for the stadium and all the loans was also factored in.

Just more speculation, but if this is true then why would anyone prefer staggered payments rather than getting all the money up front?

Maybe they felt that the staggered payments was the better deal, but surely a bird in the hand has always been better than having two in the bush?

I personally believe this story to be true, and this makes me believe we have not quite got rid of our silent partner just yet? There’s going to be a hell of a lot of money to be made from the massive regeneration being kickstarted by this stadium, but after putting two and two together, then maybe I’m just coming up with five?

I for one curse the day he walked in with his fat wallet, if only Bill could have sold to someone who knew what they were doing.

A group of children could have run things better than this board. I am going to embrace the change and take the new ownership at face value, I will judge them on how they conduct themselves and the decisions that they make. How 'Everton' of us to want to run them out of town with pitchforks before they've made a single decision.

Bowing to fan pressure too soon was one.

One or two manager choices was another.

Then you have Kenwright who should have resigned before now.

The main reason in all this though is that we simply couldn't recruit good enough players. Who you blame for that is open to argument.

To be fair though the Prem. is now more than ever a two division competition with 13 or 14 clubs with only staying in the division to look forward to.

It doesn't take much mismanagement and some bad luck to end up where we are now.

I would not have choosen 777 as new owners but with the addition of players in the last window I think we are good enough to climb out of the relegation places ok.

What we can do now is get behind the team and forget protesting at least for now.

How could they possibly know what 777 will or won't invest? If they don't invest in players it won't be due to lack of funds.

I did some research on investment in playing squads at the other sides in the "portfolio."

This summer Red Star brought in 5 players on free transfers, and released 10.

Standard Liege spent 5.2 million but sold 6.3 million so a profit from trading players.

Vasco da Gama spent 19 million and raised 12 million so a net spend of 7 million.

Hertha Berlin spent 4 million but sold 31 million so a profit of 27 million.

Genoa spent 28 million but sold 10 million. so net spend of 18 million.

Obviously each club has different circumstances like Hertha being relegated presumably needed to cut costs. Genoa and Vasco Da Gama both got promoted so presumably they would have received more money for TV the next season. But overall they made a profit of about 3 million on player trading across their clubs.

He may have put in £750m - he may "only" be getting £500m back from 777, but if he stopped paying the bills he would get £0.

We are headed for administration if we don't get new owners who will put in more cash and change the way the club is run. It looks like 777 Partners are coming in to try to turn things around. I wish them the best of luck. The alternative hardly bears thinking about.

Let's, just for a moment, take a positive view. The government, FA, Premier League etc etc all give the thumbs up 👍 to 777 and MSP see it as a plus in securing their funds (rather than being pissed off that their miserable $150M offer didn't go through). We get our performance back on track and finish in a mid-table position.

And… the new stadium is opened on time and is a massive success (which it will be!)

There, I feel better now! 😁

I'm glad this is the first thing I've read on this beautiful Sunday morning, Bob!

EFC is a monstrous money pit with the colossal financial drag anchor of a new stadium.

The squad as is seems destined to be relegated sooner rather than later and 777 appear not to have the mega dollars to turn it around.

I don't get it.

We can do this! We can get back to the great times. My first Everton game was in 1953 as a 5-year-old. So, I've seen us come up and go through good and bad times.

We are on the verge of our next revival. Just need the balls to see it through. I think Sean Dyche is just the right guy to bring us through as our manager. Good times ahead.

777 Partners airline investments

I understand there's a possibility of 'out of the frying pan, into the fire' but as I say, I am choosing to see the positives.

Barry (60), the new stadium will be a colossal money-making opportunity for the new owners. Match-day revenue, 50,000 supporters being milked at every opportunity to buy drinks, food, beer, shirts and whatever else 777 can think of. It's the Spurs model and that must be what they see in this.

I also don't think the squad are 'destined to be relegated sooner rather than later.' That's your crystal ball talking. We need to back Dyche to keep us around for one more season.

Unfortunately, I would imagine Dyche and Thelwell may not survive beyond this season if 777 are in. Thelwell has done brilliantly with the hand he's been dealt, he's demonstrated he's a shrewd operator. If he'd have been in charge of transfers from day one of Moshiri's reign, we wouldn't be in this mess.

I would have concerns if 777 start to meddle with the football management of the club this season, which would be too soon, and might be a death knell.

I'm also still puzzled about stadium ownership. It's not part of the deal, so who owns it exactly? Are 777 renting the stadium from next season onwards?

Just looking at their respective league placings (Sevilla bottom of La Liga, Hertha bottom of 2nd Bundesliga, Genoa mid-table in Serie A, Standard Liege first win of season today) doesn't really bode for optimism, but it's early days in all leagues.

Does anybody know anything about the current state of affairs in other 777 owned clubs? Debts, ageing squads, investment…?

I assumed it is. Has it been stated that it's not?

I think you're polishing your own crystal ball.

How will increased stadium revenue be of benefit if you don't know whether we own it or not? How onerous will the financial burden be via renting or loan payments?

And you may disagree with "relegation sooner or later" but you admit you're looking at this "positively" – surely that's just your own crystal ball talking.