Murray Group finance director Mike McGill yesterday outlined the chronology of the sale of Rangers.
Here is the statement read by Mr McGill at Sir David Murray's office in Edinburgh:
l Sale process was long but not unusually lengthy and we met Craig Whyte and his advisers on several occasions.
l Meetings and negotiations between Murray Group and Whyte were always chaperoned in accordance with the requirements of the Takeover Code.
l Independent confirmation of funds was provided by lawyers to Whyte, Collyer Bristow. Funds were in their client account.
l We were always assured the funds belonged to Whyte. Involvement of Ticketus or other parties was never disclosed, let alone consented to.
l Whyte and his advisers were provided with financial and management information by the independent committee of the board subject to confidentiality undertakings. This included the Employee Benefit Trust case.
l Due diligence was performed on this by Whyte and his team of advisers.
l Negotiations took place in London and France, with advisers present.
l Completion included repayment of the bank debt from funds held by Collyer Bristow.
l As part of the deal, £9.5 million was held to the order of the club for specific purposes in the client account of Collyer Bristow under a solicitor's undertaking.
l Whyte and Collyer Bristow also confirmed the availability of a £5m working capital facility.
l Entitled to rely on the solicitor's undertaking – a cornerstone of corporate and conveyancing transactions.
l Those details were all set out in the circular for shareholders issued by Whyte.
l On August 25, 2011 we sought confirmation the purchaser was complying with obligations in the Share Purchase Agreement (SPA) and asked for details of the £9.5m held in the client account of Collyer Bristow.
l Draft response received from Collyer Bristow on October 11, 2011 advising SPA that obligations being complied with, that £1.7m invested in infrastructure of the club, and that £7.8m was still retained in their client account.
l Letter from Collyer Bristow was entirely unsatisfactory as unsigned.
l Pursued Collyer Bristow and Whyte for a formal response (for) two months. Signed letter was eventually received on January 3, 2012 confirming same facts – that SPA obligations being complied with, that £1.7m invested in infrastructure of club, and that £7.8m was still retained in their client account.
l We voluntarily provided the above information to the administrators on February 16, 2012.
l We understand some, or all, of the £9.5m held by Collyer Bristow to the club's order may be unaccounted for.
l We understand that some of the documents volunteered to the administrators may (be) of use to them in pursuing these funds.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article