Kenwright Confirms Cash Windfall for Blues

By Simon P from NSNO - Posted by John P
September 16 2005

"Bill Confirms Deal" proudly proclaimed on the Official Site after Chairman Bill Kenwright had announced the imminent arrival of the Fortress Sports Fund deal exactly one year ago today, at an Extra-ordinary General Meeting called by disgruntled shareholders.

The deal was to inject up to £30m into Everton Football Club, after the dissolution of True Blue Holdings - the company set up by Kenwright, John Woods, and Paul Gregg when they took over the club from former Chairman "Agent" Johnson - which was only blocking further investment in the club.

Fortress was headed by Christopher Samuelson, a man who had clearly made an impression on Kenwright. “Christopher Samuelson is the head of the fund. He is a man who has great credentials in Geneva and we are hopeful we will complete a deal where Fortress Sports Fund invest a considerable amount into Everton," said Bill.

A month later and Samuelson let us know of his Blue View and detailed how the money would come into the club, and when it would become available.

"We will start with £12.8m of new money in the first phase, with an option for another £17.2m," he explained. "That all depends on the needs of the club. If the club needs the money we will bring the money in.

"The Annual General Meeting will have to approve the investment in December - but after that the money will be available. It's taken some time, but we are nearly there now.”

However, by the time of the all-important AGM in December, things were beginning to look less optimistic, and Samuelson approached Everton to ask for a "14 day extension to the exclusivity clause" whatever one of those may be.

Samuelson said: "We are in the final stages of completing the transaction and while we had hoped to have this in place by the AGM the extensive administration with international regulators has delayed the closing of the transaction.

"I have assured Bill Kenwright that the money is in place and that we are close to being able to release it as we have indicated."

The AGM duly came on Decemeber 7th with no vote on whether or not the board would accept any monies the Fortress Sports Fund wished to invest, meaning that a further meeting would be needed if any offer was forthcoming.

Samuelson spent the evening re-assuring Evertonians that he didn't want control of the club, and desperately wishing he had watched Everton more as a young student in Germany.

He told the meeting: "We are not looking in any way for control of Everton Football Club nor are we there to get back huge sums of money. I’m not looking for dividends."

"We have raised the money, we are just awaiting on approval. We have drawn on our investors to put money into the fund and we have the option to invest more money into Everton."

Two days later and Kenwright was still confident of the money arriving wihtin the 2 week extension, despite Fortress missing the first deadline.

Kenwright explained candidly “His deadline was Monday. Obviously I’m not an idiot so I asked: ‘Where’s the money?’ ‘The money’s not in the bank’ came the reply and I got the reasons why.

“You have to then involve your bank manger, lawyers and accountants and it comes to the stage when you’ve got an AGM.

"Keith has spent a lot of time with Christopher and so we said: ‘Okay, are you going to have it in the bank so we can tell the shareholders?’ and he said: ‘No, because of regulations.’

"Do you have the money in a bank though?’ and he said: ‘Yes.’ Then we asked: ‘When can it be in our bank?’ and I think he said: ‘In about six or seven days,’ so we agreed to the 14 days extension.

“I’m optimistic because the one thing you can’t do is grab someone by the throat and say: ‘Put your money in the bank!’

"I’d like the money in the bank. You have to ask yourself if you like this man’s work approach and all I can tell you is that he has spent hours to try and start off this fund. That diligence has been impressive."

This was after he said, “The Fortress Sports Fund deal is great because the deal is very simple. Let’s get on with it. I hope we’re all convinced."

Three days before Christmas, and a day after his two week "exclusivity extension" elapsed, Samuelson declared that the money was in the system and that Everton could recieve it as soon as Industry Regulators "OK'd" it.

“We formed the Fortress Sports Fund in Brunei, which is a financial centre that allows the formation of protected cell funds," he said.

“We are now awaiting on the final approval from the regulator on that fund and therefore we have to have that as one of the conditions to go forward.

“However, we have created an escrow account to receive the money from the investors and that money, we have had confirmed to us, has been transferred and should be received momentarily, so it is in the banking system.”

“The fund will be sitting on the money almost immediately, the club will get the money as soon as they have called their EGM, approved it, which I believe takes 28 days.”

That was the last official word on the Fortress Sports Fund. No EGM was called to accept any money, although Chris Samuelson did say in February, "The Fortress money has been there for some time, we have just been waiting for the fund to exist to take the money in.

"As far as I'm concerned it's a fait accompli - subject to the approval of an EGM of shareholders."

However, an un-named source told the Daily Post "I think the feeling yesterday was that it was up to Mr Samuelson to get his side of the bargain in order and then the club will sort its end out."

On April 5th, 2005, after many accusations that he was the reason that the Fortress money had not been recieved by Everton, Paul Gregg said : "As a director of Everton Football Club, I am not aware of any formal offer having been presented.

"As a director I have not received any proof of funds - or that they even exist.

"And as a board member I would like to know where the funds are coming from. Speaking as a director of the club I would like to know whether the people who are supposed to be investing are the kind of people that a club with the history and tradition of Everton Football Club should be dealing with.

"I think we have been led down the garden path and that the whole exercise has embarrassed the club."

It has now been over seven months since Samuelson spoke about investing in Everton Football Club, and exactly one year since the deal was announced by Bill Kenwright.