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EGM Seals Evans Takeover
EGM Seals Evans Takeover
Tuesday, 18th Dec 2007 00:48

Marcus Evans's takeover of Town was formally ratified by the club's shareholders at Monday evening's EGM. The proposal for Evans to take a 87.5% stake in the club received the support of 98.4% of the club's shareholding.

Chairman David Sheepshanks was pleased that the takeover had been so convincingly backed: “Obviously, I'm delighted at the support we've had from shareholders. It's an overwhelming endorsement of the proposal and the work the board has done to bring this forward tonight.

“There were some searching questions [from shareholders] as we would want. This is an historic evening for the club, the end of an era and the beginning of a new one, and these decisions shouldn't be, and aren't, taken lightly.

“There's been an immense amount of negotiation and discussion between lawyers and between us and the Marcus Evans Group as we've haggled over different points. I'm pleased that shareholders have had the chance to ask the questions they've wanted to.”

No representative of the Marcus Evans Group was present at the meeting, something which Sheepshanks says was a conscious decision on their part: “They felt this was an Ipswich Town evening.

“Marcus felt he had corresponded directly with the shareholders, he's had a letter published in the local paper and he has made it clear that he will be in touch and he will meet various leading figures in the local community.

“He'll meet with the local newspaper and radio station editors and other leading lights in the community so that people will see the whites of his eyes and realise that he is a real person and realise what his values are.

“That said, he doesn't want to adopt a public life and that's his call. I have advised him that football is an incredibly public world and open to scrutiny and that I'm sure someone may eventually manage to photograph him.”

Sheepshanks says the deal is excellent for Town: “At the end of the day the board felt this opportunity was such a good one that we had to take it very seriously.

“People understand now that given the way the football economy works, life in the Championship is hell unless you've got big resources. The vast majority of Championship clubs are relying on handouts from somebody.

”Although we might have gone on a year or two further thanks to generosity of people, I think that we felt we were always vulnerable and we needed to find a solution to the debt and to resourcing the club with finances which could launch a realistic promotion challenge.”


The evening had begun with Sheepshanks making a speech outlining aspects of the deal. He was joined on the top table by the club's current directors, apart from Holly Bellingham, who is in the midst of selling a large part of her Marketform business, and Peter Cohen who sent apologies.

Questions were then taken from the floor with Town associate director James Wood asking why the club didn't engage Vantis, a firm of accountants, who he introduced to the club back in August.

After the meeting, TWTD asked chief executive Derek Bowden to explain the situation with Vantis, who were represented by Ken Anderson, a licensed players' agent: “He approached the club together with James in the summer and spoke to the chairman about the potential for investment and wanted us to sign an engagement letter with a 6% finder's fee, we having already signed an engagement letter with another merchant bank [understood to be Seymour Pierce — TWTD].

“At that time we were marketing the club quite heavily around the world and we took the view that a 6% finder's fee for an unnamed potential investor who may or may not have been there was not a good use of our money. That could have resulted in a seven-figure fee being paid to an intermediary, which we didn't feel was the right thing to do at that time. We felt that if a would-be purchaser was out there, then they could have picked up the phone to the chairman, as Marcus Evans did.

“Everyone on the planet who was interested in football would have known the club was for sale and we took the view that if someone was really interested then they would approach us and that we shouldn't be paying exorbitant intermediary fees on a speculative basis, which is what it would have been.

“It wouldn't be untypical for someone to agree their own terms of engagement and then, having got those agreed, try and find a buyer for the club.

“We signed an exclusivity agreement with Marcus Evans. I didn't speak to Ken Anderson, I've never spoken to Ken Anderson, but he apparently said at that time he had a live buyer, although again didn't reveal who it was. One wonders how many clubs that buyer, if there were a buyer, was being touted to.”

Bowden says that the reported interest from Birmingham owner David Sullivan wasn't linked with Anderson: “We said all along that if we'd received a formal offer from any would-be investor we would take it seriously. The fact is the only formal offer we received with a known individual was Marcus. There was no offer received by the football club from David Sullivan.”

Another shareholder was concerned that Marcus Evans might be out to make a smash and grab with Town, selling the club for a profit as soon as it was in the Premier League. Chairman David Sheepshanks answered that everything so far indicates that Marcus Evans is in it for the long haul and has never sold one of his major investments, although he conceded that the club had been unable to negotiate any guarantees that this would be the case.

In answer to a question regarding the debt, which Town will now owe to Marcus Evans and which will continue to accrue interest, Sheepshanks said that it would make no sense for Evans to take repayments when the club couldn't afford to given his main aspiration of owning a Premier League side.

One shareholder asked whether buying the freehold of Portman Road had come into the discussions. David Sheepshanks said that property issues relating to Portman Road or Playford Road had never been talked about. Portman Road is owned by Ipswich Borough Council, who would almost certainly not want to give up the freehold.

Shareholder David Barker recommended that his fellow fans vote in favour of the proposal. He said that Marcus Evans lived in his Suffolk village in the 1980s and was known to three of his friends who found him likeable but private. They had also confirmed that Evans attended matches at Portman Road during this period.

Ian Stewart was concerned that shareholders had been given little information on Evans's businesses. How do we know he has the financial clout we're told he has, he asked.

Sheepshanks said that Evans had been thoroughly researched and had passed with flying colours. The Premier League had coincidentally also looked into Evans's background when he took on the lease of their old headquarters at Connaught Square, while Norwich Union and Barclays had also carried out their own due diligence before completing the sale of the debt. Again, Evans received the all-clear.

Derek Bowden said that the £12 million Evans was providing the club for a transfer war chest would be in Town's account on Tuesday via a UK bank and that the money comes from cash reserves rather than loans. Sheepshanks added that Evans is clearly “a man of very, very substantial worth”.

The role of the Cobbolds in Town's history was praised by one shareholder, prior to a question about the new board. Who would get the casting vote if the six-man board was split? Sheepshanks said he didn't expect the situation to arise as it hadn't previously in his time at the club. However, were that to be the case, Marcus Evans's three new directors — Martin Pitcher, Ian Milne and Jonathan Symonds - would have the upper hand.

Sheepshanks said the new directors are “not football men” and would be at the AGM, which has been pencilled in for Monday, 28th January.

The details of the deal Marcus Evans made with Norwich Union and Barclays was the subject of another question, but Sheepshanks was unable to give any information due to confidentiality agreements. He added that the only circumstance whereby the details would become known would be if Evans sold the club.

Town's remaining external debts were revealed by finance director Anna Hughes as being £1.1 million left on the loan with the Bank of Scotland which paid for the training ground land and £2.55 million in loan notes.

Derek Bowden said there have as yet been no talks regarding any of Marcus Evans's companies becoming the club's new sponsor. Sales and marketing director Andrew Goulborn has been charged with finding a replacement for E.On.

The members of the club board who will be stepping down — Holly Bellingham, Peter Cohen, Richard Moore, John Kerr and Roger Finbow — will become vice-presidents, while Philip Hope-Cobbold would from now on be the club's patron. All will continue as directors of the plc, which under the new situation will own 12.5% of the club.

Ticket prices are too high said one shareholder, then another respondent from the floor suggested the directors who were in place when the club went into administration should fall on their swords.

Before shareholders voted, John Kerr made a speech, then while the counting was completed three films were screened. The first was a history of the Cobbold family, the second the goals from this season and the third the recent Sky feature on the academy.

The results of the vote were announced by chairman David Sheepshanks, who said that 98.4% of those who voted were in favour of the resolution, 0.2% were against, while 0.9% withheld their votes. Of the club's 3,792, 420 were present at the meeting and 71% of shareholders voted.

After the meeting was over, chief executive Derek Bowden summed up the evening from the club's perspective: “It's a very positive day for the football club. We've worked very hard to try to find a good investor with the interests of the club at heart and in Marcus Evans that's what we believe we've found.”


Photo: Action Images



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