City Show Yellow Card To Ransom Bid - 29/04/2007

Manchester City has distanced itself from former player Ray Ranson saying that his bid to buy the club contains 'material' problems. It has always been thought that the City board preferred the bid from an unnamed American consortium. They are thought to have been given due diligence. In relation to the Ranson bid, the board said in a statement, 'Ray Ranson's indicative proposals to date have contained a number of material conditions that the board do not believe can be fulfilled and this has been communicated to Ray Ranson's advisers.' The statement said that 'neither the purported "£90m bid" nor further proposals of any sort' had been received from Mr Ranson. However, in an indication of its willingness to sell, the statement revealed the board had granted Mr Ranson and his advisers access to confidential information and allowed him to carry out due diligence. A proposal from former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra is thought to be in an embryonic stage and is the least likely of the three bids on the table to succeed.

Ranson was not put off by the terse and unsympathetic response from City and confirmed in a statement to the London Stock Exchange that he was keen to enter 'formal discussions' with the club. City's main concern abour Ranson centres on the way he plans to fund a potential buyout. There are still uncertainties about the viability of some of his proposals and the future management of the club's £57m debt. Doubts have been expressed about the motives of SISU Capital Ltd., his financial backer. A venture capitalist that specialises in debt restructuring, SISU's attempts to take over Derby County last year drew a hostile response from its supporters. Although it ultimately lost out to a consortium headed by Peter Gadsby, now the Derby chairman, SISU confirmed its plan was to buy the club, invest in it, reach the Premiership within five years and then sell the club on at a profit.