UPDATE - Conversation with Mr John Bennett (Blue Knights)

[BrahimHemdani 1]

On Wednesday night I posted a comment that I was concerned about the involvement of one of the Blue Knights and that I had written to his employers in that connection. I am now prepared to name that person as Mr John Bennett.

 

I would stress that my concern is in no way personal. It is simply the case that as an employed person I could not see how Mr Bennett could make enough time for Rangers as well as his full time occupation. Mr Bennett is employed as a fund manager with Henderson Global Investors, so I wrote to the CEO of that company as follows (name and address omitted):

 

Wednesday, 14 March 2012

 

RANGERS BLUE KNIGHTS â?? MR JOHN BENNETT

 

I am writing to you as an IFA who has transacted business with your Company for many years as well as some of the companies that you have acquired recently, such as Gartmore and New Star. At the same time, I am a lifelong supporter of Rangers Football Club and a former secretary of Rangers Supporters Trust. Although I do not have any direct link to a supportersâ?? organisation at the moment, I have been a shareholder for nearly 30 years.

 

In terms of Funds Under Management, currently I have approximately £xxx,xxx invested in your products, either directly or through the xyz platform; of which just over £xx,xxx is invested in Mr Bennettâ??s European Selected Opportunities Fund and £xx,xxx in your European Growth Fund managed by Mr Pease. The juxtaposition of these two Funds is something that has been exercising my mind since your acquisition of Gartmore last April and the fund integration in July 2011.

 

As a supporter and shareholder in Rangers Football Club, naturally I welcome any moves to bring the club out of administration as soon as possible but as an IFA with clients invested in Mr Bennettâ??s Fund, you will appreciate that I am extremely concerned about the possible impact on Fund performance of his involvement with the â??Blue Knightsâ?.

 

I understand that Mr Bennett is the sole Manager of this Fund and also your European Focus Fund, lead Manager on four other funds and co-Manages your European Absolute Return Fund; with total assets well in excess of £2 billion. Therefore, it does seem to me that he certainly has his hands full managing seven funds, without the added pressure of being involved in the â??Blue Knightsâ? group and the possibility of becoming a Director of Rangers FC.

 

I look forward to your comments with great interest and hopefully you will consider that this matter is urgent, given that offers to purchase the club have to be submitted by this Friday, 16 March 2012.

 

Yours sincerely

Mr Bennett called me at 2.00pm today. The call lasted about 40 minutes. He told me that he fully understood my concerns. He said that â??he was one of the parties to have expressed an interestâ? in the consortium but that his name had been quoted by PM â??earlyâ?.

 

He told me the background to his involvement and said that he had been in Glasgow yesterday and that he had had an â??extensive talk with PMâ?.

 

I told him that I would be posting details of the conversation on Gersnet this evening and he agreed that I could say that he had given me an undertaking that he would do nothing that would compromise his ability to do his day job. He had â??looked at the complexities in terms of the management (of Rangers) and had had time to study what was requiredâ?. In his opinion it would require a â??full-time commitmentâ? and that was â??not something that he was able to offerâ?.

 

I asked him about the amounts that individual members of the consortium were able to contribute and his response was that he was sure that â??the BK will raise sufficient funds to bidâ?. He did not know how much of that would come from Ticketus.

 

Not surprisingly he would not say how much he intended to invest personally but commented that he â??would want a big say for (that) type of moneyâ?. This took him back to say that that would involve â??too muchâ? of his time.

 

I told Mr Bennett that I was also concerned that the description of him in the Daily Record as a â??financial big hitterâ?¦.from Londonâ? might lead some fans to conclude that he would be able to invest some of the â?¬3 billion that he has under management at Henderson, in Rangers and he confirmed that this was a certainly not the case and that to that extent the description of him as a financial big hitter was false. He agreed with me that he should take steps to ensure that if there was any such misconception it be corrected as soon as possible.

 

He concluded by saying that he would meet me the next time he was in Glasgow on business.

[Bluedell 5,679]

Very interesting, BH. Thanks for posting.

[BrahimHemdani 1]

Very interesting, BH. Thanks for posting.

 

You are welcome, my good sir Bluedell.

[pete 2,499]

Yes Thanks for that BH

[BrahimHemdani 1]

Yes Thanks for that BH

 

We aim to please.

[forlanssister 3,114]

I'm sorry but I must be missing something here because I fail to see the relevance of what he does for a living having a baring on his potential investment or his potential appointment as a director of RFC.

 

I didn't think the term financial big hitter is quite such a blatant misnomer either, I'm pretty sure nobody was daft enough to think he's worth a sum equal to the value of the funds he manages.

 

Also think it's premature writing to his boss considering that the BK's have as yet not got control of the club and may well never do so.

[BrahimHemdani 1]

I'm sorry but I must be missing something here because I fail to see the relevance of what he does for a living having a baring on his potential investment or his potential appointment as a director of RFC.

 

I didn't think the term financial big hitter is quite such a blatant misnomer either, I'm pretty sure nobody was daft enough to think he's worth a sum equal to the value of the funds he manages.

 

 

Also think it's premature writing to his boss considering that the BK's have as yet not got control of the club and may well never do so.

 

Absolutely nothing to stop him investing what he wants; but he made it clear in the conversation that at the level he would invest, he would expect a degree of involvement that would be inconsistent with continuing to perform his day job.

 

I have to look after the interests of my clients who are invested in his Fund. Therefore it is entirely appropriate for me to question the amount of time he might spend on Rangers if the bid is successful. Surely it is better to do that now, than after the event. Once you become involved to that extent (possibly as a director) you cannot simply switch on and off and say: I'll only deal with Rangers business when I have time or when I am on holiday or take a day off as he did yesterday. It is a 24/7 thing.

 

I wasn't suggesting that anyone would think "he's worth a sum equal to the value of the funds he manages". What I was suggesting, and he agreed with me, was that some might think he could invest some of that money in Rangers, which he cannot.

 

We don't often disagree FS, I hope I have clarified my view on this one.

[Zappa 0]

If (big IF at the moment) the Blue Knights bid is ultimately successful, then I certainly don't have an issue with John Bennett being part of the takeover consortium and investing some of his spare cash and spare time in Rangers if he so wishes.

 

We've had Dave King and AJ as directors of the club even although they live on different continents (South Africa & the United States). At least John Bennett primarily lives and works in the UK, so it's perfectly within reason that he could attend some meetings and games in his spare time.

[BrahimHemdani 1]

If (big IF at the moment) the Blue Knights bid is ultimately successful, then I certainly don't have an issue with John Bennett being part of the takeover consortium and investing some of his spare cash and spare time in Rangers if he so wishes.

 

We've had Dave King and AJ as directors of the club even although they live on different continents (South Africa & the United States). At least John Bennett primarily lives and works in the UK, so it's perfectly within reason that he could attend some meetings and games in his spare time.

 

Yes it is Zappa; but the point he made to me was that at the level that he would want to invest it would be much more than a spare time thing and that the amount of time (full-time he described it as) would be inconsistent with the performance of his day job. He has a good reputation as a fund manager and he doesn't want to lose it.

[Zappa 0]

Yes it is Zappa; but the point he made to me was that at the level that he would want to invest it would be much more than a spare time thing and that the amount of time (full-time he described it as) would be inconsistent with the performance of his day job. He has a good reputation as a fund manager and he doesn't want to lose it.

 

So basically you think he'll either pull out of the consortium or won't be investing a large sum of money?