After a frustrating delay, Hearts secured the backing of their creditors and shareholders on Friday for a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) which is the first step for the supporter group Foundation of Hearts to take control of one of Scotland’s most successful football clubs. The CVA to take Hearts out of administration has been approved on condition of the purchase of the club’s majority shareholding. The Foundation of Hearts has offered £2.5m but they are unable to acquire UBIG’s majority shareholding until the early months of next year.
UBIG own 50 per cent of the club but are themselves in the midst of insolvency action and have yet to appoint their own creditors’ committee to rule on whether to hand over their shares to the Freedom of Hearts. And this is something that will not happen until possibly February or even March 2014. Nevertheless, today is seen as a significant step in securing Hearts future and Ian Murray MP, spokesman for the Foundation of Hearts spoke of his delight at the progress made and his gratitude to those Hearts supporters who have pledged financial support to the club.
“We are pleased at the outcome of today’s meetings. It is yet another step towards the road to getting the club out of Administration and back to financial health.
The process of a CVA is extremely difficult and today is merely the beginning of the next part of the process. We are full of respect and admiration for the creditors who have been involved in this process.
Today I’d like to thank our supporters – without them it would not have been possible to get this far.
While the journey is not over yet and there is much work to be done, we can move forward with a degree of optimism that Heart of Midlothian can have a future we can be very proud of.
It is because of you, our supporters that we have achieved this significant step, but bigger challenges lie ahead and there is much to do. We must remain united with purpose.
To that end, we once again call upon supporters who have not yet signed up to make a monthly contribution to the Foundation of Hearts to do so at www.foundationofhearts.org.
From the bottom of my heart I say – from all at the Foundation of Hearts and the Club – thank you.”
Administrator Bryan Jackson issued a note of caution. “It’s a good news but the uncertainty about when the UBIG shareholding will be resolved means Hearts may have to ask the fans for more donations. There’s nowhere else for us to go if we run into difficulties,” he said.
“The cash flow is fluent, it can change. We’ve had a couple of plusses because of the Cup games against Hibernian and Celtic. We do have funds, on the face of it, to get to the end of February into March. That’s the timescale we initially worked to and we have to see what happens after that”
Hearts face Celtic in the William Hill Scottish Cup at Tynecastle on Sunday, kick-off 3.00pm.
Author of The Team for Me - 50 Years of Following Hearts. Runs Mind Generating Success, a successful therapy practice in Edinburgh. Contact me if you want rid of any unwanted habits. Twitter @Mike1874
