Alan Savage has been confirmed as Caley Thistle’s preferred bidder – meaning the club is on the brink of exiting administration.
Consultant and former ICT chairman Savage, on March 28, officially offered to buy the club out of administration for £800,000 in return for a 100% shareholding stake.
The Orion Group chief set up a company called FC Inverness, where he wants all 4,000,000 shares transferred to.
This followed joint administrators confirming a £3.5million debt owed to former directors had been agreed by the creditors to be wiped out post-administration and the club continuing to operate.
Savage’s offer to administrator BDO was conditional on 100% of the shares being transferred to FC Inverness, all long-term loans being written off, all trade creditors accepting their debts were settled and the company PropCo giving a written undertaking to sell their peripheral lease to ICT for a price agreed at a meeting on March 19.
Administrator confirms Savage deal
On Thursday, Savage hosted a swiftly-arranged press conference in the Caledonian Stadium boardroom along with James Stephen from administrators BDO.
He said: “I am delighted to say, as of this morning, we have resolved the issues around the longer-term creditors’ loans and the property which is adjacent to the stadium and I am most delighted to say we have appointed Alan Savage as preferred bidder for the club.
“We look forward to working with Alan and his team in setting a timetable for a company voluntary arrangement which will allow the club to exit administration which we are seeking to achieve well before the end of the season. It will allow the club to plan going forward for next season.
“I just want to place on record my thanks to Alan for all the support he has given the club. One of the key factors in going forward with the bid is that the person would be suitable for the footballing authorities in Scotland.
“I don’t think we could have a better example given what Alan has done for the club over the last few months, so my appreciation is very for much Alan.
“I also want to place on record my thanks to all the team and the staff at the club who have worked tirelessly through this difficult situation.
“It is nice that we have got to this point. We look forward to driving the process forward, having the creditors’ meeting and getting that approved and seeing the club exit administration.
“The next stage is for us to hold a meeting of creditors, and we need to set a time for that.
“That will be done well before the end of the season.”
‘Relief’ to avoid ICTFC liquidation
Savage was thrilled to have his offer approved – and he’s already looking ahead to post-administration.
He said: “I am just happy the conditions have been met for my offer.
“I can now go on and run the football club and make sure it can do as well as it possibly can.
“It is a relief for everyone that we’re not going into liquidation.
“We are going to keep a full-time squad for next season.
“The hard work starts for (interim CEO and ex-player and manager) Charlie Christie and (manager) Scott Kellacher to put a squad together so we can get out of League One next year.
“I’m looking forward to it. With Charlie and (director) Graeme Bennett in particular, and Scott Kellacher, we have some innovative ideas of how to compete.
“We can attract people – we got (Aberdeen loanees) Alfie Bavidge and Alfie Stewart in particular, and we have looked after them better than we looked after them before.
“We can demonstrate to potential signings that we do look after people, and all we care about is playing football.
“If we do get players as capable as those two lads, we will have them playing football and not sat on a bench. We’re a football club.
“It’s important from a business point of view to be run as a business, and try to get income that is matching outgoings.
“Having one person at the helm is better. The more clarity we have, we can move things forward.
“If we have a good idea at 10pm on a Thursday night, we can implement it at 9am on a Friday morning, and that’s how it should work.
“In football sometimes you have to negotiate quickly for deals, and I think we bring that to the table.
“I’m hopeless at football, but I’m good at business, and I have people around me who are very good at football.”
ICT are eighth in League One with four games to go this season. They are three points in front of Annan Athletic, ahead of hosting Kelty Hearts this Saturday.
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