WATCH: Orion businessman Alan Savage calls on past Inverness Caley Thistle directors to help stave off administration as £1.7 million losses from previous regime are revealed
Alan Savage will seek shareholder backing to take control at Caley Thistle for three years if he can seal a deal to rescue the club from the threat of administration.
At a candid press call today (Wednesday), the past chairman and major shareholder - now a consultant plotting ICT’s financial recovery - made it clear the spectre of administration or insolvency still loomed large over the past Scottish Cup winners.
Laying bare full details of the Inverness outfit’s desperate financial plight, Mr Savage said the latest balance sheet would show a £1.7 million loss - three times last year’s reported deficit.
In brighter news, a deal to remove most of the crippling loan debts of around £3 million - owed to seven different individuals - was firmed up by Tuesday evening.
Mr Savage, outlining his longer-term commitment to drive Caley Thistle forward, said: “For the future, I will ask the shareholders if they want me to run the club, and if they do, I get a mandate of full control until a buyer is found.
“This mandate would be reviewed every three years.
“The club needs, and deserves, certainty after five years of huge losses, chaos, confusion and (ex-CEO) Scot Gardiner.”
Individuals owed around £220,000 of those loan debts are demanding repayment. Others have agreed to write off the debts or convert them into share equity.
As we reported earlier today, Mr Savage will recommend to the board three potential ways forward.
The first, and by far his most favoured solution is for three past club directors who have property interests linked to the club to agree to plug a £600,000 shortfall in finances.
That includes £150,000 of the £220,000 figure owed in loans to the club and another £450,000 needed to meet other debts and stabilise the club.
Mr Savage has now issued an urgent plea for those ex-directors, David Cameron, Allan Munro and ex-chairman Ross Morrison, to step forward in the club’s hour of need to help unlock recovery.
The trio now own the licence for a £40 million battery farm proposal near Fairways Business Park, eventually rejected by Highland Council, that was previously said to be capable of raising £3.4 million for Caley Thistle.
Mr Cameron and Mr Munro also own the lease for seven acres of potentially lucrative land around the stadium, bought from Tulloch/Springfield, but which used to be owned by the club.
The second option is to meet that £600,000 shortfall in finances by a local community crowdfunder.
The third, and least palatable, is to enter administration.
Mr Savage said: “If these entrepreneurs are prepared to deal with £150,000 of the loanees who want payment, I will deal with the £70,000 Scot Gardiner thinks he is owed.
“If, then, the entrepreneurs are prepared to donate £450,000 to the club that enabled them to get these assets, I will take care of the club going forward, as a going concern.
“Revenue generated by the seven acres through time will recover their donation.
“Once this revenue equals the £600,000, they will split further revenue with the club on a 50/50 basis once their overheads and costs are deducted.
“If the licence is worth anything then, after recovering their overheads and costs, they split anything that’s left 50/50 with the club.
“If we can do a deal with these guys, everything will be fine. Onwards and upwards.
"I can only recommend to the board what decision they take. It is up to them.
"I quote the auditor: ‘you're insolvent when you know there's no way out’. At the moment, there is a way out.
“The people that I’m asking for money, have got the money and they have got the assets on their own little balance sheet. It won’t put them out of business.
“Fair play comes into it.
“I can’t see why we can’t do a deal.
"The best option is the people who have got the battery farm licence and the people who have got Propco, which could be worth a lot of money, come to the party.
"They were on the board when Scot Gardiner was (CEO). In my opinion, they should be supporting the club now and leaving it in a way where I can do something with it.
"They need to come out and say whether they are going to help or sit round the table and thrash out some kind of deal.
"I am optimistic these people will do the right thing because the Propco and the battery farm licence could be worth millions. The battery farm alone is quoted at being worth £3.4m.”
As for his own aspirations to lead the club forward, Mr Savage said under him there would be a return to community roots and added: “I’ve put in £200,000 to give me time to carry out this forensic examination. The staff have all been paid this week (for August).
“I can fix this club. I’m not getting carried away. I can do one keepy-up, but I’m good at business. I can look after this club and I can motivate people.
“(The club) has a community and some wealthy individuals. We would appeal to rich Invernessians all over the world and say they have a great education, started in Inverness, and have done very well.
“You know what state the club is in - help out.
"If I run the club, it will be run as a football club.
"We will try and find the next Ryan Christie to help us out, through Charlie Christie's youth system. We will bring the kids on and make them better under Charlie.
"Graeme Bennett has also brought a lot of added value to the club.
"They had a meeting with the manager this morning. “
Asked why, 18 years after his last boardroom involvement, he felt obliged to get involved in such a messy financial situation, Mr Savage said: “I could see that (directors) that had been left on the board by business people leaving the board, one way or another, didn't have a clue what they were doing.
"I thought, why should a club of its stature in Inverness be left to the wolves because they didn't know how business worked?
"I felt duty-bound to step in, rightly or wrongly.
"Fair play is important. I respect Inverness Caley Thistle Football Club. I ran it for two years and we didn't make a loss, which is quite interesting.
"At that time, I was running the football club and outside influences were making some of the decisions. That's why I left.
"At any point in time, you could get out-voted by the shareholders. Then you are back to square one.
"The club needs a degree of certainty. It needs control and it needs bringing together and systems and procedures put in place.
"Graham Rae (past chairman) left the club with systems and procedures.
"The club could have been run on a firm footing for the last five years with systems … but it wasn't.”
During the press call, Mr Savage also revealed that businessman Ketan Makwana’s proposed deal between Seventy7 Ventures deal and Caley Thistle - considered “solid” by former CEO Gardiner - had convinced the Auditors A9 on June 28 that the club remained a going concern.
Mr Savage said it had since come to light that the Seventy7 Ventures deal was “not a credible or real” option.
It was also confirmed, as we reported previously, that overseas investment interest from suitors including a Portuguese wealth management firm was on the back-burner while debts and future finances were being resolved.