Caley Thistle hope to have a preferred bidder for the club by the end of April – with multiple suitors still in the frame to buy the administration-hit Highlanders.
ICT consultant (and former chairman) Alan Savage is confident a complicated car park wrangle which has delayed the sale process has been sufficiently ironed out so it won’t prevent the League One side from securing a new owner.
Property company Inverness Caledonian Thistle Properties (also known as PropCo, and owned by ex-ICT chairman Ross Morrison and former director David Cameron) have a long-term lease on land surrounding the Caledonian Stadium building.
This land, which includes car parking, is leased from Highland Council until 2094 and has been sub-leased to the football club for the same period.
However, in December, administrators said the potential for Caley Thistle’s lease of the parcel of car park to be pulled at “quite short notice” had left prospective buyers “concerned”.
However, Savage is upbeat the club’s sale is progressing towards a positive conclusion.
Savage told The Press and Journal on Tuesday: “The administrator is going to set a closing date for the interested parties to make some sort of formal offer in order for us to get down to a preferred bidder.
“I am meeting with the administrator, James Stephen from BDO, on Thursday. He tells me there are interested parties and we’d like to get something wrapped up before the end of April.”
Inverness would prioritise keeping squad together after club sale – Savage
Caley Thistle went into administration in October last year when it was confirmed debts of close to £4million had stacked up.
There is time pressure on wrapping up a sale off the pitch, while Inverness continue to push for automatic League One safety on it.
Up to 75% of the current ICT squad could be released if the club are not in a position of certainty from which to offer the players new contracts ahead of the 2025-26 campaign. Talks are in the pipeline with the SPFL and SFA to determine what business can be conducted in the near future.
Savage – outlining an ideal scenario where a timely sale would ensure Caley Thistle have a strong squad footing from which to target promotion back to the Championship next season – added: “We would then want to stabilise things (post-sale of the club), especially keeping the bulk of the squad together.
“We know some players will go, but our ambition is to stay in League One this season, which I’d rate as better than 50-50 at the moment.
“We’d then target winning promotion next season and then try to stay in the Championship with a mid-table (first year) finish as a minimum.
“That’s on the basis the buyer or buyers are modest (investors) – however, if they are Hollywood film stars, who knows?”
Will Savage stick around?
On his own future involvement in a sold-off Caley Thistle, Savage is open-minded about remaining part of the club, saying: “If the new owners wanted me to come in and help them out, I’d do that.
“However, they might have their own ideas and want to do things themselves.
“In the future the club will be run by people with common sense, focused on football.”
Commercial appointment confirmed
Meanwhile, Andrew Benjamin, who until last month was centre fundraising manager at Maggie’s cancer centre based in Inverness, has come on board as a key off-field capture for ICT.
Savage said: “Andrew is going to run our commercial side, alongside (interim CEO) Charlie Christie, who will concentrate on football.
“Andrew will move this club forward, even though we are in administration – he’s very good, he’s pro-active. and he looks the part.”
Caley Thistle, who were hit with a 15-point deduction, are ninth in League One, the relegation play-off place, but only one point adrift of Annan Athletic with a match in hand.
This Saturday, Scott Kellacher’s side travel to rock-bottom Dumbarton, who are also in administration.
The struggling Sons are 18 points behind ICT, having also received an 15-point punishment just weeks after Caley Thistle.
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