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Due Dilligence

Right can someone give me a difinitive answer on what this is.I have read over the past couple of days that if we are in due dilligence,and the deal were not to go through a sum has to be paid is this correct.Do many deals fall through once they go into due dilligence?The statement from Zabeel would indicate they have every intention of going through with it but I would just like to know the answers to the questions as i am wetting myself.

Comments

  • Here you go,

    "The process by which a purchaser of or an investor in a company or business investigates the records of the target to support its value and find out whether there are "skeletons in the cupboard". Professional reports from accountants and solicitors may be included. The due diligence process is covered by confidentiality undertakings and supported by warranties"

    The warranties here would be an agreement on a cash sum if Zabeel do not proceed.
  • Here you go Steve

    http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?type=RESOURCES&itemId=1074414003

    Hopefully it'll take a couple of weeks, and as long as we've been honest up front, it shouldn't be a massive issue
  • As I understand it its like they have talked and talked and sadi ok lets do it..

    due dilligence is a process to check that everything the boys used to sell the club is simply true.....

    so as long as they didnt use any porkies then it should be a done deal...
  • LOL-

    Brilliant lay persons translation mascot!
  • cheers stan......

    this is all nuts isnt it!!!!!
  • "Due Diligence is a term used for a number of concepts involving either the performance of an investigation of a business or person, or the performance of an act with a certain standard of care. It can be a legal obligation, but the term will more commonly apply to voluntary investigations. A common example of due diligence in various industries is the process through which a potential acquirer evaluates a target company or its assets for acquisition"

    Wikkipedia
  • Due dilligence is a matter of making whatever checks you deem necessary to make sure that you don't get shafted in a deal. We might all exercise due dilligence at some time or another, though we probably wouln't call it that. Getting a mechanic to give a car a once over before you buy is due dilligence, having a survey done on a house is due dilligence, even checking a bag of potatoes to make sure they aren't bruised or looking at your pint to make sure there's not too much froth is due dilligence.

    The bigger the investment you are making the greater the potential hazard if things go wrong. When buying into a business you'd want to satisfy yourself that the company actually owns the assets it claims, that no one else has a claim on it or any significant part of it, that there aren't any upcoming legal cases or debts that you'll be held accountable for, that major assets are fit for purpose, that business performance has been largely in line with forecasts (if not, why not), that you will have the legal freedom to deal with the business in the way that you plan and probably a whole number of other things that could lead to disappointment if not uncovered.

    So, in effect its a short period in which the company's lawyers, accountants, and perhaps other specialists will check everything out to minimise the risks of losing their money and/or ending up with something that they didn't want.
  • you also want to check that things havnt been over estimated.... you want to know what sort of money having 20k people through the door actually brings in....

    what sort of sponsor ship deals are available when in the prem.

    I would imagine they are mainly focusing on the 47 million turnover years, at the back end of the premiership years, trying to establish the real potential.....

    as I said before as long as they havnt been over egging it then we should be in....

    christ i hope so.....

    my father in law just got back from italy and was saying the news is all over europe......

    sign the papers, you know you love us already !!!!!!
  • Bear in mind, a purchase such as this is governed by "caveat emptor", which means buyer beware. Thus it is encumbant upon the buyer to to check things out - hence the legally understood phrase "act with due diligence" to establish that he isn't buying a pig in a poke or paying too much.
  • [cite]Posted By: bingaddick[/cite]Bear in mind, a purchase such as this is governed by "caveat emptor", which means buyer beware. Thus it is encumbant upon the buyer to to check things out - hence the legally understood phrase "act with due diligence" to establish that he isn't buying a pig in a poke or paying too much.

    Although "Caveat Emptor" governs this sale the buyers will have included clauses about undisclosed or misleading disclosures. I a sure in the last 5 years someone bought a football club and some of the purchase price had to be returned due to non disclosure of material facts.
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  • edited October 2008
    [cite]Posted By: Kap10[/cite]
    [cite]Posted By: bingaddick[/cite]Bear in mind, a purchase such as this is governed by "caveat emptor", which means buyer beware. Thus it is encumbant upon the buyer to to check things out - hence the legally understood phrase "act with due diligence" to establish that he isn't buying a pig in a poke or paying too much.

    Although "Caveat Emptor" governs this sale the buyers will have included clauses about undisclosed or misleading disclosures. I a sure in the last 5 years someone bought a football club and some of the purchase price had to be returned due to non disclosure of material facts.

    Of course it's a mixture of warranty and counter-warranty, just like when you buy any property. There will be statements made by the seller which the buyer will really on etc. It is still governed though by Caveat Emptor as so a prospective purchaser will want to act will due diligence to establish they fully understand what they are buying whether there are any "hidden" liabilities of which the seller may be unaware or unable to warrant.

    For example, I was involved in a major due diligence exercise when the company I worked for was purchasing another business. My job was to estabilish that the company we were purchasing had effective fire, public liability insurance and that there weren't any gaps in cover which could, after purchase, lead to uninsured liabiltites arising out of things that happened before we took them over. Any potential gaps highlighted could then be brought to the negotiating table.

    There are unlikely to be these kind of issues for a football club, but I suppose they would need to understand the nature of and likely outcome of trade or employee disputes and ensure that the full costs of these are understood.
  • In my professional experience - no, seriously - even a bad due diligence report would not scupper the deal. Instead it is used as a tool for re-negotiating the contract terms/price.

    As Stig says, it's just like having a survey done on a house really - but obviously involves a bit more than looking for damp in a bathroom!
  • It's what Mike and his mates didn't do when buying Newcastle - and now they are bleating about cutting the clubs losses to £25M a year when they could sell out 50,000 plus a week. Should be straight forward at Charlton checking out o/s transfer fees and money owed for Darren Bent and double checking the legal title of the ground + monthly cash-flow as others have said.

    Since the club announced over a year ago they were looking for investors (when they came off the stock market) I suspect that they will have a "deal room" set up already with all the key documents ready for inspection.
  • [cite]Posted By: seriously_red[/cite]It's what Mike and his mates didn't do when buying Newcastle - and now they are bleating about cutting the clubs losses to £25M a year when they could sell out 50,000 plus a week. .

    Hehe, that ´s true...Ashley had to fork up a lot of money just because he didn´t realise that him buying the toon meant that all stadium debts had to be paid within a month.
  • If I was buying a football club, part of my due dilligence would be to check all of the player registrations - this could be a biggie in the light of the Tevez affair. Obviously the biggest issue for Zabeel will be to ensure that Dennis Rommedahl and Amdy Faye really have been sold and that there is no chance of them coming back to us. Ever.

    Can someone confirm, wasn't their some clause in the deeds to The Valley, that the land can only be used for sporting purposes? This could be very useful insurance against asset strippers.
  • [cite]Posted By: Stig[/cite]Can someone confirm, wasn't their some clause in the deeds to The Valley, that the land can only be used for sporting purposes? This could be very useful insurance against asset strippers.

    I believe that the council will only allow sporting and ancillary purposes on the site. That is why our proposed development of appartments which would then be rented out at a commercial value has run into difficulties. I'm not aware of talk of a restrictive covenant on the land but maybe others are?
  • [cite]Posted By: northstandsteve[/cite]Right can someone give me a difinitive answer on what this is.I have read over the past couple of days that if we are in due dilligence,and the deal were not to go through a sum has to be paid is this correct.Do many deals fall through once they go into due dilligence?The statement from Zabeel would indicate they have every intention of going through with it but I would just like to know the answers to the questions as i am wetting myself.

    It simply depends on what has been negotiated as a precontract/heads of terms. The answer is we don't know.
  • [cite]Posted By: floydandharvey[/cite]Due dilligence is a load of rubbish anyway. I'm one of the mugs who bought Ebbsfleet United (as part of an internet scheme). We were told after due dillegence that the club's ongoing debts were manageable, approximately 25k per month, so we agreed the purchase.

    It turns out that EUFC is actually running up a debt of not 25k but 60k per month. We simply can't afford to maintain it and it looks inevitable that both MyFC and EUFC will go bust before the end of the season.

    So much for due dilligence!

    Sounds like a case for class action claim by shareholders against the professionals who undertook the due diligence on behalf of prospective shareholders to me. More money for the lawyers.
  • [cite]Posted By: floydandharvey[/cite]Due dilligence is a load of rubbish anyway. I'm one of the mugs who bought Ebbsfleet United (as part of an internet scheme). We were told after due dillegence that the club's ongoing debts were manageable, approximately 25k per month, so we agreed the purchase.

    It turns out that EUFC is actually running up a debt of not 25k but 60k per month. We simply can't afford to maintain it and it looks inevitable that both MyFC and EUFC will go bust before the end of the season.

    So much for due dilligence!

    Did you read the financial statements?...Or was it just a case of someone saying "It looks ok lads, while leaving beer stains on the dossier"
  • [cite]Posted By: floydandharvey[/cite]

    Football is a world of spivs and self-made DelBoy types. Of course the Charlton directors are some of the good/professional guys, but after my Ebbsfleet experiences I'd trust due dilligence when it comes to a football club about as far as I could throw Harry Redknapp.

    Sounds very much like some of those bankers who have been gambling the worlds silver on derivatives and credit swaps...:o)
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  • That's interesting - and sad - news about MyFootballClub and Ebbsfleet, and deserves its own thread, really.

    I wouldn't like to be the bloke who started MyFootballClub...
  • [cite]Posted By: floydandharvey[/cite]
    [cite]Posted By: MCFC[/cite]
    Did you read the financial statements?...Or was it just a case of someone saying "It looks ok lads, while leaving beer stains on the dossier"

    How many times has someone taken over a football club only to find out afterwards that the club didn't really own their ground (didn't Tangoman suffer from this?).

    No. Jordan was offered CPFC which he bought. He was also offered the freehold to SP which was owned by Altonwood (Noades) but declined to buy (or more likely refused to pay Noades the £10m he wanted at the time) and therefore entered into a ten year lease on SP instead. If he had of 'reunited' ground and club at the same time, then he wouldn't be in such a mess he is in now.

    Which is a shame :-)
  • Dubai can afford top rate accountants and lawyers so it´s a very minor risk that they will miss something important..and if they do they can afford to cover their losses anyway.
  • Its not all about accountants it also about compliance. Statutory compliance and the risk if your not. Things like fixed wiring inspection, fire risk assessment, L8 water regs etc. If your not compliant and someone dies its see u in court mr CEO.

    went through DD 3 times when we sold a 5 star hotel (£ 80 million in 96). First time was bad but by the time we did it the 3rd time was easy.

    Even if the DD has risk its up to the buyer if it viable. Some would include any (evaluated) risk within their overal purchase budget.
  • edited October 2008
    There might be about a team of 12 junior lawyers locked in rooms right now looking and looking at endless sheets of documents and figures and ordering in pizzas while at it. god knows working for lawyers for 21 years but the last 10 in acqusition finance i have a good idea. Surprised it has come out now as the deals i work on are always private till the last moment but then they arent normally football clubs!!

    Will report a little more in the morning but spoke to my boss at 5.10 friday. I emailed him the press report with the statement of intent. My boss is a fine acquisition lawyer and he told me the process that would be happening right now and that for it to come out at that moment was basically more or less done but we cant actually count our chickens just yet until its signed. Have seen so many deals collapse at the final hour.

    I will speak to him more in the morning and try and translate the terminology the way some of us lay peole can understand.
  • Thanks B i will sleep a little easier now,although all the wine ive been drinking since friday has helped a lot.

    VALLEY FLLOYD ROAD THE SAND ROLLING IN FROM THE DUNES.
  • (Quote) Due dilligence is a matter of making whatever checks you deem necessary to make sure that you don't get shafted in a deal. We might all exercise due dilligence at some time or another, though we probably wouln't call it that. Getting a mechanic to give a car a once over before you buy is due dilligence, having a survey done on a house is due dilligence, even checking a bag of potatoes to make sure they aren't bruised or looking at your pint to make sure there's not too much froth is due dilligence. (quote)

    For example, if you were buying a club down near Croydon, you might want to check whether ownership of the ground comes as part of the deal.
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