Exclusive interview with Caley Thistle’s potential saviour
Ketan Makwana has given his inside account about his bid to buy a majority stake in Inverness Caledonian Thistle FC to “put the record straight” and reveal just how close the club was to insolvency - and how he is bringing it back from the brink.
In an exclusive wide-ranging interview with The Inverness Courier he spoke about the need to close the deal quickly - “the club’s situation is a ticking time bomb” - and his first impression of the city: “My first thoughts were ‘oh’ and ‘wow’.”
He also explained how he is financing the deal, his awareness of fans’ concerns, the potential for transfers, his vision for the future and perhaps most importantly his commitment to the club.
• Inverness Caledonian Thistle confirm deal for firm to become majority shareholder
• Meet the new owner of Caley Thistle Ketan Makwana who has secured the future of the stricken club
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The news broke a week ago that after months of mostly unfounded speculation about bidders that Mr Makwana’s Seventy7 Ventures had agreed a deal to buy the majority stake.
Mr Makwana said he wants to address some of the speculation and “conspiracies” and respond to “people saying put your money where your mouth is or show us that you are really committed”.
In that regard, The Courier has seen a letter he sent to those the club owes money offering a trade creditors relief scheme - that will effectively settle the club’s debts this month.
That is seen as key to stabilising the club after years of mounting debts and projects which dramatically fell through led to a risk of entering administration which has led to the inability to deliver on the field.
Now Mr Makwana has “put his money where his mouth is” and committed to paying the wages at the end of the month reducing the risk of an “insolvency event” that could jeopardise the deal - cash he would stand to lose if it all falls through.
There was only one area that he could not discuss and that was the total value of the deal and future investment because both sides have signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) as lawyers pore over contracts.
Addressing the scale of the investment, Mr Makwana said: “I appreciate that everyone wants to understand exactly what has been bought, how it is being bought and how much for but at this time we are still in a very delicate period of the negotiations for the deal itself and the structure of it.
“We also understand the precarious nature of the club’s financial situation and as such any delay to concluding the contract could result in the possibility of an insolvency event. We are very conscious of that on both sides.”
Amid speculation of a rushed deal in some quarters, Mr Makwana believes it had to be done at pace.
“I am trying to move swiftly,” he said. “A lot of my communication internally has always been, we want to conduct our business swiftly, efficiently and we don’t want to waste time: the club’s situation is a ticking time bomb.
“The minute we get towards the end of the month there are dues and the club does not have the capacity to make those payments then we are struggling to keep the whole deal alive.
“This should all be done by the end of August and we should be looking to go into September under this new situation and direction.”
Mr Makwana said he understands those who have questioned what is going on after concerns emerged from some fans about the actual value of his company Seventy7 Ventures.
He said: “I completely appreciate the position of the fans, we come completely out of nowhere, we make this bid and it was unanimously accepted by the board and then everyone is asking, who are these people, where is their money from?
“This was bound to come up and the longer we go without making some statement the more conspiracies start to dig up. I read the press, I read the views of people - people have been looking up Companies House so let me put the record straight.”
He explained about Seventy7 Ventures: “When we talk about finances we are an asset based company, we have very confident assets in the UK, London, internationally, we take equity in different companies and have exit strategies.
“We use our assets as a way to monetise our next moves and what we want to do so when this opportunity arose we immediately knew that this was something I wanted to target and I have been very stubborn about it.
“I thought by hook or by crook I am going to do this deal which is why, before I even started talking to the club, I started liquidising assets to make sure I have got the right capital to do this deal.
“As we started the conversations I felt compelled to get more of our assets liquidated to make sure that we could also come in and inject not just positivity but also to rehabilitate and stabilise this club - that is why I am doing what I am doing.”
But he wanted to make clear that his position is that he is not “just riding in from out of town and we don’t have any credibility behind us” and that “I am fully committed to this club and what we are doing”.
He said: “I am going on the record right now that even though we haven’t signed a deal, I have already sent out letters of intention for all creditors that are owed money by the club and that this will be rectified during this period of contracting.
“So we will come to an arrangement or settlement with all trade creditors by the end of August. We will also be covering the club’s wage bill at the end of August so the club doesn’t have to worry and scramble around should the deal be delayed for any reason. I am doing this to safeguard the integrity of the club so it doesn’t fall into an insolvency event.
“I have read a lot about people saying put your money where your mouth is or show us that you are really committed - so there is me putting my hands out right now without a deal with the risk that if the deal doesn’t go through for any reason and the club goes into administration I will lose everything that I am putting in right now.
“I am not waiting for this club to fail so I can ‘buy it for £1’ as some others have gone out and publicly said.”
