Former Coventry City chairman Gary Hoffman has spoken publicly about his attempt to invest in the club and claimed he has backing worth more £30m. Mr Hoffman was the man chosen by the previous government to head the rescue of the failing bank Northern Rock and who is now looking to raise billions of pounds of investment to set up a new bank.
Speaking to the Coventry Telegraph, Mr Hoffman, who is a lifelong Coventry City fan, has said he has businessmen willing to invest £20m to cover the losses made since Sisu took over and to give manager Andy Thorn fund to strengthen the side. The other £10m would be set aside to go toward exercising the option to buy half of The Ricoh Arena.
Mr Hoffman has already made two attempts to take over the club, one was a verbal offer and the other written,both of which were dismissed and rejected by the current board. These offers have now been withdrawn according to Mr Hoffman and the ball is now back in Sisu's court.
The understanding is that the first, verbal offer from Mr Hoffman was to buy 100% of the club for £1, but he was asked to put it into writing. He later returned with a written offer which was in excess of that which Sisu paid when they first took control of the club, but which would be payable only if the club gained promotion to The Premier league within three years.
However Mr Hoffman insists that the offer is genuine and that the potential investors are not time wasters.
Mr Hoffman has gone public to tell his side of the story and he said, “I want to put the facts straight because most fans are fed up with rumours and I want to tell them where we have got to on this.”
“Above all, we should all be getting behind Andy Thorn and his team ahead of the new season. As far as the offer goes, yes I made a verbal offer on behalf of investors about six weeks ago. I met the chairman, Ken Dulieu, to do this."
"Having not heard anything after a week, I chased and the offer was rejected. I then put an offer in writing and handed the offer letter over to the chairman and I explained who the investors were, well known people from the UK and some overseas investors; football people and business people with great reputations."
“I said in the letter that proof of funds would be provided through legal representatives. The chairman said he would explain to the board that it was a serious and formal offer."
“I had already explained and put in writing that, as well as the offer to Sisu for 100% of the shares of the club, the investors were prepared to invest over £20million in the club and, additionally, exercise the option as soon as possible to buy 50% of the stadium."
"In total it is likely they would be prepared to invest over £30million.The offer, I am sure, was unpalatable to Sisu because we were proposing that all the up front money went into the club and stadium."
“Even so, it was more generous than what Sisu offered shareholders over three years ago when they took over. Shares that had been in families for decades were taken off them with no recompense because they were promised a brighter Sky Blue future."
"Geoffrey Robinson and others were forced to write off all their investment and Sky Blues supporters gave up their shares for nothing. Sisu have put money in and we were all grateful for that but we are no further forward. I did not receive a reply to my letter so chased after a week again."
“The reply I got was that the chairman had presented the proposals to the board and explained why the letter was not, at this stage, signed by the investors, but he said he had been instructed by the shareholders (Sisu and Leonard Brody) to write back saying they would not consider it unless it was on letter headed paper! How ridiculous."
“In the letter I had offered to work together on a way forward that was in the interest of all stakeholders, but I got no response to the substance of my proposals, just that it needed to be on letter headed paper."
“The investors were reluctant to do this because previous correspondence had been mistakenly copied on to people that should not have seen stuff. So the investors have said to me that the ball is now in Sisu’s court if they want to talk about the way forward and they have taken the offer off the table until we are approached by Sisu.”