[Standaman]

unofficial deadline looming.

Do we expect a public statement from Mr Peace on May 31st if bets are off?

Can we assume silence suggests wheels are in motion?

Having set a deadline of 31st May I think Peace will make some sort of statement shortly thereafter although it might not be a definitive one.

I wouldn't assume silence means anything in particular. We know that there are at least two parties undertaking due diligence at this moment. Either an offer or offers will be forthcoming or not. If the offers are way below Peaces valuation I think that will be the end of the matter the sales process will only continue if the offer is acceptable or at least close enough to warrant further discussion. 

Watch this space

[tuamigos]

Having set a deadline of 31st May I think Peace will make some sort of statement shortly thereafter although it might not be a definitive one.

I wouldn't assume silence means anything in particular. We know that there are at least two parties undertaking due diligence at this moment. Either an offer or offers will be forthcoming or not. If the offers are way below Peaces valuation I think that will be the end of the matter the sales process will only continue if the offer is acceptable or at least close enough to warrant further discussion. 

Watch this space

Where's the deadline of 31st May come from?
The only date I saw confirmed was that he would walk away if the deal was not completed by the start of training in early July?

http://www.expressandstar.com/news/2015/04/27/foreign-investors-close-to-west-bromwich-albion-bid/?

[Standaman]

When the sale was initially announced the Peace set the 31st May deadline for interested parties to come forward with a proposal and complete due diligence. Completion will obviously take longer.

[baggie38]

It's gone very quiet on the takeover front all of a sudden. Surely we will hear one thing or another about this week?

[Jimbo Baggy]

I have a feeling the American backers are Intuit, a Californian computer software company, who own QuickBooks are main shirt sponsors. The two owners are very wealthy Americans, the ones a Billionaire. As for the others I have no idea. I just hope to hear some new news this week, it does seem to have dragged on.

[Topman]

Is that just a hunch Jimbo? If anyone ITK could say if they think they may happen or not would be great please. I am not sure if it's something I want but it would be interesting times

[VANDERLEI]

We're not getti9ng sold this year. Maybe next year or the year after but it won't happen this upcoming season.

[baggie96]

Surely there would be a statement by now if nothing was happening?

[Nathan]

I have a feeling the American backers are Intuit, a Californian computer software company, who own QuickBooks are main shirt sponsors. The two owners are very wealthy Americans, the ones a Billionaire. As for the others I have no idea. I just hope to hear some new news this week, it does seem to have dragged on.

That is definitely what I'm led to believe. The rumour as far back as last summer was that the shirt sponsors (Quick Books) had something to do with a potential takeover.

[Standaman]

The co-founders of Intuit are Tom Proulx and Scott Cook. Both are billionaires Cook is still involved with the business whereas Prolx is no longer involved but is working on other projects such as Netpulse. Neither have any previous interest in sports ownership as far as I can make out. The purchase price is well within their means but they just seem a little unlikely to be the sort of people to suddenly buy an English football club unless they were the financial muscle behind a more traditional sports investor.

[KnaveofAlbion]

Another £72 mill in the coffers for this season's performance.

Can't hurt any investor to see we are very much a mid prem team now. Even out-earning the MASSIVE...... villa?!!

If only we were semi-fancied we'd pick up more than the minimum TV games and thus another £5mill or so?!

[baggie96]

According to E & S there's a couple of groups completed due diligence and are impressed. Now it comes down to the asking price. Groups from Far East and America. Potentially one from Australia. Surely this should be the easy part as they wouldn't have completed due diligence if not going to put in a proper offer

[BobTaylor]

Sounds positive hopefully we will here more in next couple weeks I got a feeling the group from the far east might take us on just a feeling.

[geoff]

Another £72 mill in the coffers for this season's performance.

Can't hurt any investor to see we are very much a mid prem team now. Even out-earning the MASSIVE...... villa?!!

If only we were semi-fancied we'd pick up more than the minimum TV games and thus another £5mill or so?!

I remember deadly Doug at one time after he sold out Vilia coming to a few of our games were im pretty sure he & JP would have talked about the Good the Bad & the Ugly things about Selling & what he would do different so lets hope he was listening & makes the right choice.

[tgd26]

Just thinking about this topic and it occurred to me that a club in our position may be able to attract a different type of investor (foreign or British) who is looking at a different model compared to existing Premier League owners.

With FFP restrictions and our healthy finances it may well be an opportunity for a new owner to come in and essentially keep things on an even keel (in a way similar to JP has) as opposed to coming in and throwing money around to either (pay off existing debts, fund a new team that will get promoted out of the Champ and into the Premiership, or in the case of Man City and Chelsea, taking an already established large team and turning them into title contenders).

It could be that the new owners are aware that they can’t act like sugar daddies in the same way the owners at Fulham, QPR and to a lesser extent Villa have done in recent years and try to buy their way to the top of the league. They might be happy increasing the spending above what we are used to  while not letting things get out of control financially in the hope of toppling the big 4.

I imagine a new owner may look to expand things on the commercial side, move us into new markets from a publicity perspective while slowly trying to fund the team to the point where it is challenging for Europa league places and going on decent cup runs.

That way the club wouldn’t be put at risk financially (neither would their personal fortune) and the new owners would still get all of the personal\business publicity that a lot of these guys\organisations are seeking by owning a Premier League team.

I think the sugar daddy days are over (as has been discussed here previously) but I still think there are a number of reasons why a club like the Albion would be an interesting proposition for investors looking to get into football for commercial reasons.

[thelawyer]

But FFP regs are likely to be relaxed imminently so no one can be sure what a new owner has in mind. Nothing we can do to change it.

[Standaman]

But FFP regs are likely to be relaxed imminently so no one can be sure what a new owner has in mind. Nothing we can do to change it.

We have no idea what is heading our way and how competent or otherwise they are but the loosening of the UEFA FFP rules and will only bring them into line with those in the Premier League, which would not allow us to ship the hundreds of millions in losses that it would take to turn us into Chelsea or Man city.

In truth the likelihood of us being snapped up by the next Oligarch off the rank was always remote we are more likely to get a pound shop Abramovich like Gydanck who has huge ambitions but not the resources to back it up and those are the most destructive of owners.

My hope is that we attract sound investors who will try and grow the club without putting it a risk or saddling it with debts that can only be paid if we achieve a certain level of success on the pitch. The latest reports would suggest there are still multiple parties interested having gone through the due diligence process, I think we might be quite close to an new era.

[BobTaylor]

Question is when should we cut it off to concentrate on recruitment ? I would say another couple of weeks.

[Standaman]

Question is when should we cut it off to concentrate on recruitment ? I would say another couple of weeks.

As part of the due diligence process the club would have submitted a summary of the current trading position and a budget for the coming year, remember the last published accounts are 12 months old. Given that player wages and fees are the two biggest items of expenditure the budget for those items would include this summers activity.

If any of the parties want to proceed they will do so on the basis of that budget, so provided we operate within the budget there is nothing preventing us from signing players in the window. The only issue would be if the potential owners wanted a say in who we signed and that in itself is a huge red flag that we have the wrong sort of owners.

 If as reported they have all signed up to business as usual then there is no problem. The reason why  football clubs are often put into limbo during a change of ownership is because they are trading at a loss and the current owners do not want to put any more money and without a new injection of cash they are unable to move forward, however we are not in that situation.

[VVVAlbion]

Question is when should we cut it off to concentrate on recruitment ? I would say another couple of weeks.

Can we not multi task?

[Albionic]

1. Employees are told its business as usual in a takeover or buy-in situation.
2. Despite what JP says in public if a suitor comes waving the cheque book he WILL listen and engage.

Reality is there is no "real" cut-off date, IMO.

[BobTaylor]

Can we not multi task?

Well I'm guessing TP along with others are on holiday for the majority of June this gives us plenty of time to get new investors in my eyes but like I said earlier I would have a cut of point off the 21st maybe something along those lines, Shouldn't interfere with each other on that front.

[Droitwich Baggie]

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/west-bromwich-albion-latest-potential-9388616

Still ongoing.

[BB74]

Wang Jianlin mentioned as potential owner on the comments on the Brum Mail link.

[johnny Cash]

Can we not multi task?

No doubt we can, but its not efficient to sign players when you think your budget is £15m if in fact it is £35m.