Hell fire!
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Here's the full text for anyone who can't access it.Quote:
Dear Shareholder
Sheffield United Limited (''SUL'') : Shareholders' Meeting to be held Saturday, 28th July 2018 at
10am at the Copthorne Sheffield Hotel
You will be aware from the well-attended open meeting of Sheffield United Limited held at the Copthorne Hotel on 17th March 2018 that we are in dispute with UTB LLC ("UTB") a limited liability partnership owned and controlled by HRH Prince Abdullah Bin Mosaad Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud ("Prince Abdullah").
The dispute concerns circumstances in which UTB and SUL exercised options to transfer the ownership of Blades Leisure Limited ("BLL") which in turn wholly owns The Sheffield United Football Club Limited ("SUFC").
The result is that until the- Court adjudicates on the dispute BLL, and therefore the Football Club, continues to be controlled on a 50/50 basis between the McCabe family and Prince Abdullah. This means that all decisions have to be agreed by both owners or the Club is left in deadlock.
In May there arose a dispute as to how BLL was to be funded in the coming 2018/19 football season. SUL sought to have the dispute resolved by the Court at a hearing on 21st June 2018. UTB objected to this application on the basis that (i) the Court did not have jurisdiction to make a ruling and (ii) the Football Club did not need any further funds at this stage.
On 29th June 2018 Mr Justice Fancourt gave his ruling on these matters. I direct you to website
https://shepwedd.com/sul-shareholders which provides copies of the written arguments served by each side and a copy of the Judge's judgement for your information. You will see from reading that the Judge rejects UTB's first argument but accepted that, whilst additional funds were desirable, an injection at this stage was not "absolutely necessary" to aid the stability of BLL and in turn the Football Club.
Thus we are calling a meeting of our shareholders at the Copthorne Hotel on Saturday 28th July at 10am to provide update on the litigation, the timescale for its resolution and the impact (if any) on the financial position of the Football Club as a result of this development.
There will be no formal resolutions to put to the meeting and so the meeting is not a "General Meeting'' to transact any particular company business. It will be informal to allow shareholders to promote any questions they have in relation to the dispute and general business. Myself and Codirectors of SUL look forward to seeing you on the 28th July 2018 along with our Solicitor, Philip Sewell (a Partner in Shepherd and Wedderburn) who will also be in attendance.
Please remember you must bring the original copy of this letter with you to the meeting because without it you will not be granted access to the meeting.
Yours faithfully
Kevin McCabe
Chairman
Cheers Gray. :)
latest from the Stir:
https://www.thestar.co.uk/sport/foot...loat-1-9253755
Kin ell...........BOMBSHELL
The plot thickens!
Two posts from Sothall Blade on S2
Post 1:
McCabe is accusing the Prince of accepting a financial bribe while he was a Saudi Government Minister.
Furthermore the bribe was used by the Prince as a means of topping up his investment in Sheffield United as he had fallen short on his payments. I think most Sheffield United fans (and beyond) would very be interested to read that.
Post 2:
See my previous post, which was cut and pasted from the legal documents linked to earlier.
I'm not sure why people don't seem to think this is big news.
See pages 9 and 10 of this document:-
https://shepwedd.com/sites/default/files/UTB v SUL - D_s SA for 20.6.18.pdf
The Charwell Loan
29. The Court will see reference to the “Charwell Loan” in two contexts:
a. Firstly, the circumstances of the Charwell Loan and its true nature (namely a disguised inducement or bribe to Prince Abdullah in his role as Saudi Minister for Youth and Sports) form part of the Defendant’s allegations of unfair prejudice in its section 994 Petition.
b. Secondly, that its repayment on 30th April 2018 and in particular an application that the Defendant issued to secure its repayment on the due date, are deployed by both sides in very different ways to explain or justify the stances taken at this stage.
30. By the end of 2016 SUL had invested £1.6m more than UTB into Blades leading to a disparity in the respective partners’ investments in the company (Sewell 3 para 26 at [4/29/797]).
31. In February 2017 SUL was looking to divest itself of its interest in Blades, and the Properties, and a potential investor called Dr Rakan Al Harthy (“Dr Rakan”) was identified. In the talks that were ongoing, Prince Abdullah secured an agreement by Dr Rakan to lend (through his company, Charwell Investments Limited) a sum of £3m to Blades. The loan was interest free with repayment due by 30th April 2018 [2/20/311].
32. By July 2017 UTB had still not injected £1.6m into Blades (to bring the partners to parity) and SUL was informed that Dr Rakan had agreed that UTB would assume £1.6m of the Charwell loan and repay it instead of Blades. Thus providing UTB’s share injection of £1.6m. In this way UTB secured further time to come up with the £1.6m and obtained further shares in Blades to that value.
33. At this stage Dr Rakan was the principal behind Sela Sports, a substantial company operating in the major Saudi media and sports industry. The Prince was the Saudi Minister for Youth and Sports (Petition paras 42-45 at [1/12/107]).
34. SUL now has reason to believe that UTB never repaid the full £1.6m to Charwell and it infers that the majority of this sum was written off by Dr Rakan as a favour to the Prince (Sewell 3 para 64 at [4/29/807]). This was a disguised means of conferring a benefit on the Prince which was a serious breach of the Prince’s duties to SUFC (SUL says that the directors of Blades had a duty not to act in such a way as might bring the Football Club into disrepute).
35. In the period leading up to the repayment date of 30th April 2018 Mr Giansiracusa sent an email to the Blades directors pointing out the potential dire consequences of a failure to repay including the possibility of Blades insolvency and a points deduction by the English Football League
Hi Guys, just thought I'd pop in to see how things are going with SUFC.
Good to see the owners doing so well to continue the momentum started by CW.
Now, who was it that introduced a bloke he met in an airport lounge to be 50% owner for £1?
It McC wasn't involved you'd think it was a fake news story. Due diligence anyone?