The future of Hearts last night became clearer still following the decision by the Lithuanian court to begin bankruptcy proceedings against UBIG.
The company, formerly owned by Vladimir Romanov, possess a 50% majority shareholding in the Tynecastle club and have effectively been insolvent since May 17 when it was announced they could not meet their financial commitments.
UBIG's assets were also frozen in April, making any discussions over acquiring their shares in Hearts – who last night defeated Crusuaders 2-0 in a pre-season friendly – a challenge for the club's administrators, BDO. It is essential that BDO attain both UBIG and Ukio Bankas' shares in Hearts, which amount to a combined 79.9%, before they can seek to push through a Company Voluntary Arrangement to exit the club from administration.
UBIG have 10 days to appeal the decision, which could delay dialogue between BDO and UBIG's liquidators, who are expected to be Lithuanian business recovery experts Insolvensa UAB. Bryan Jackson, Hearts' administrator, was last night seeking clarification over the situation and his ability to acquire the relevant shares.
He has also been poring over the bids for the club after the three interested parties – fans group Foundation of Hearts, HMFC Ltd, the company fronted by Bob Jamieson, and Angelo Massone's Five Stars Sports Ltd – submitted proof of funding this week. Copies of the bids have now been passed on to Valnetas UAB – Ukio Bankas' administrators, who represent Hearts' largest creditor.
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