Rangers administration: Hope that club can extricate itself from Ticketus deal

[BrahimHemdani 1]

This article was published in INVESTMENT WEEK on 17 February and sheds some light on the arrangements. Apologies if it has been posted before, some of it is obviously old news now.

 

Octopus 'working with administrators' of Glasgow Rangers

 

 

Octopus Investments has said it is working with the administrators of Glasgow Rangers after one of its investments was caught up in the debacle.

 

 

 

Octopus' Protected Enterprise Investment Scheme has a stake in Ticketus, which has bought up season tickets for future Rangers games worth £24m.

 

 

Octopus Investments clarified their arrangement with the stricken club, through their Ticketus arm, after Rangers' administrators revealed the money could not be traced in the club accounts.

 

In a statement Octopus said: "Ticketus is one of the many entities into which Octopus Protected EIS invests. Ticketus has purchased tickets for Glasgow Rangers games for a number of seasons in advance, as it has done for a number of years previously with the club.

 

"Ticketus does not lend money; Ticketus is the owner of assets - the tickets. Octopus is continuing to work with the administrators and Glasgow Rangers on this matter. We have no plans to make any further comments at this stage."

 

Administrators Duff and Phelps said they are trying to recover a £24m payment or loan from Ticketus for advanced season ticket sales which appears to have disappeared from accounts.

 

David Whitehouse, a managing director at Duff and Phelps said it is believed the payment was made to a parent company account rather than the club's account, and they were checking with lawyers that have worked for the firm in the past.

 

The loan is not secured against assets of the club but it means Ticketus is unlikely to be re-paid in full should Rangers exit the administration process, according to the BBC.

Octopus owns the £100m company Ticketus in its £500m Protected EIS product and used to hold it in its secure VCT, although the group confirmed this investment was closed a few months ago.

 

Octopus' company literature described Ticketus as "an example of a VCT qualifying company that has the characteristics that we will seek for investments. All the investments we make are into companies with lower risk business models.

 

They might want to re-write that last bit now.

 

VCT's (Venture Capital Trusts) are generally 5 year investment vehicles which are approved by HMRC who describe them as "investing indirectly in a range of small higher-risk trading companies "

 

You get 30% tax relief on such investments (previously it was the full 40% high rate tax) and on top of this, any dividends paid by a trust are free from income tax and exempt from capital gains tax if you hold the shares for five years.

 

Some VCT's are limited life - for five or six years.

[forlanssister 3,092]

I read somewhere the guy that owns Octopus is the 8th richest man in Britain. Not sure if it is a fact though as the source was not great

 

Didn't he make his fortune betting on the 2010 World Cup ?.....