Venky’s v Indian Government (a) - 5/8/2025 - Post-Season Friendly (s/t late postponements)

[Tomphil2]

25 minutes ago, Brian-Potter said:

On the shareholder thing just need clarify the owenship structure. Assuming by shareholders you are referring to those of Venkys India Ltd which is a public company listed on the stock exchange in which VHPL own a large proportion of the shares. VHPL is 100% privately owned and owns VLL (amongst numerous other companies) which in turn owns BRFC. Venkys India Ltd has nothing directly to do with Rovers. 
 

I posted a link a while back to the latest ratings agency report on VHPL which gives an insight into its structure, borrowings and cash position. It's rating is A+++ with extremely strong liquidity.

Apart from being on the shirts and plastered around the stadium.

So we presume that VHPL is owned soley by the Rao's ?

Which would fit into the they call all the shots and can never be questioned by anyone here or in India narrative.

[Exiled_Rover]

2 hours ago, Tomphil2 said:

Aye that's my point really as although they are fabulously wealthy i think that wealth is overstated and is all assets combined.

The way they fund the club from what we see is the main VH group sends money for bills from its huge monthly turnover and the club via VLL just sits in the accounts somewhere soaking excess money up.

So to send 10/20 mill a year over with the same amount guarantees against the business or assets is then stacking up extra debt against it all.  Otherwise securing against personal money/assets if it goes on and on is tying huge amounts of money up and of course one wrong move or the govt decide to shaft them they'll keep the money or hold it forever, especially say if a full war breaks out over there.

We moan quite rightly because they are in danger of dragging Rovers down again after propping it up off the pitch for years but it really isn't a straight forward issue unless restrictions are lifted.

Even then i doubt previous levels of funding will ever be reinstated given their profit margins are now massively reduced due to price increase of raw materials. As you say though it's nothing like the slant SwagHail and the apprentice tea boy are putting on it and i suspect there are alarm bells on standby down there.

Shaft them for doing something illegal?

If it's such a burden they should sell the club - nobody with any sense wants them here.

[Bohinen1983]

If this gets sorted is it going to unlock a war-chest for transfers?

[simongarnerisgod]

well it`s finally confirmed ,the facebook mob and let happy clappers will have to admit it,waggot is a lieing toad.most fans  with a brain cell had it figured out years ago tbh

[Brian-Potter]

59 minutes ago, Tomphil2 said:

Apart from being on the shirts and plastered around the stadium.

So we presume that VHPL is owned soley by the Rao's ?

Which would fit into the they call all the shots and can never be questioned by anyone here or in India narrative.

Yes, VHPL is privately owned by the Rao's 

[Moptop1]

1 hour ago, simongarnerisgod said:

well it`s finally confirmed ,the facebook mob and let happy clappers will have to admit it,waggot is a lieing toad.most fans  with a brain cell had it figured out years ago tbh

But, but it’s the fans fault, not the lying bastards who run and own the club. That has never been the case. You are mistaken about that.🤔

[Devon Rover]

So, what was the outcome of the hearing??

[simongarnerisgod]

21 minutes ago, Devon Rover said:

So, what was the outcome of the hearing??

apparently the bond that venkys have to pay to send money here has been halved, waggots claim that there was no restriction was clearly a lie and he should be sacked

[Tomphil2]

2 hours ago, Exiled_Rover said:

Shaft them for doing something illegal?

If it's such a burden they should sell the club - nobody with any sense wants them here.

I wouldn't trust ANY govt to hold bonds or guarantees of tens of millions regardless of what it's for.

[Forever Blue]

3 hours ago, Bohinen1983 said:

If this gets sorted is it going to unlock a war-chest for transfers?

Haha, see what you did there. Good one!

[Forever Blue]

10 hours ago, lraC said:

It was always very cleverly worded by Waggott and as usual just a smokescreen, to yet again, hoodwink the fans into believe that everything is okay and the wonderful owners we have, will continue to fund us.

Some, of the fans, accepted the no impediment line, but some knew better and saw that there was one huge impediment and here we have it today, confirmed in court that we were yet again, lied to.

There isn’t an impediment, they choose not to fund us because they don’t want to pay the bond. 
 

It’s a simple choice that Billionaires have made to save a few million. 

 

Edited 9 hours ago by Forever Blue

[Upside Down]

As far as I'm aware, they've still to get a No Objection Certificate prior to sending funds. The guarantee is a condition of them receiving the certificate from the ED. This was a compromise agreement when they were refused the certificate the other year.

[lraC]

1 hour ago, Forever Blue said:

There isn’t an impediment, they choose not to fund us because they don’t want to pay the bond. 
 

It’s a simple choice that Billionaires have made to save a few million. 

 

The court ruled today to reduce the none existent impediment from 100% to 50.%. 

[Forever Blue]

3 minutes ago, lraC said:

The court ruled today to reduce the none existent impediment from 100% to 50.%. 

Correct. They’ve reduced the amount Billionaires have to pay in a bond. There is no impediment. Glad you’ve finally grasped it! 

[47er]

They never bought Rovers as a stand alone business set apart from their main industry---chickens!

That leads me to believe that it was always a means of writing off losses and not costing Venkys much in real terms.

The problem is that their incompetence has created losses far bigger than expected.

[Upside Down]

49 minutes ago, 47er said:

They never bought Rovers as a stand alone business set apart from their main industry---chickens!

That leads me to believe that it was always a means of writing off losses and not costing Venkys much in real terms.

The problem is that their incompetence has created losses far bigger than expected.

The manner in which funding mysteriously just dried up as soon as they were under investigation leads me to believe that they were always doing something nefarious financially with the club.

That's not to say they ever actually funded the club properly, they just had no problems with spaffing 15m on losses that could have easily been avoided by just running the club properly.

When the investigation started in 2021 we saw an end to the lucrative contracts being handed out left right and centre (with lots of juicy commissions for agents) and saw a move to allowing contracts to expire when they became too expensive and the fire sale of everything that isn't nailed down. The downgrade of the women's team is the latest of these actions.

Although I don't believe that the financial element was 100% the reason for them buying the club in the first place, I'd hazard a guess and say it was a big part of their reason for the purchase. The othere three venktards would have needed to see some benefit to the purchase beyond fat baz wanting a new thing to flex in public. I'd say an overseas business woth turnover in the millions that can make huge losses without drawing much if any scrutiny could be deemed quite handy to a multi billion pound corporation looking to skirt some rules on regulations.

 

[Disgruntled Rover]

On 25/01/2024 at 17:04, Miller11 said:

This isn’t absolute gospel, just my understanding of the situation, and I’m no expert. However there is possibly some info that isn’t really widely acknowledged or maybe known:

- The investigations started back in 2021, initially there were no restrictions on them moving money out of India as the RBI had no objections. This changed in August 2022, at which point it became a requirement that any company under investigation required a No Objection Certificate  (NOC) agreed by the entity doing the investigation - the Enforcement Directorate in this case

- We received the NOC for remittances in 2022

- We applied for another on 17th January 2023 which was rejected on 6th March, and a further rejection on the 31st March (for the amount of £26 million). This was rejected on the basis of the “Pedancy of investigation”. After this rejection Venky’s legal team also requested a quick resolution to the ED investigation

- On the 27th April 2023 Venky’s received correspondence from HMRC threatening a winding up order.

- On 24th May Venky’s received a letter from BRFC advising them of the potential consequences of not receiving immediate payments (presumably administration)

- On 23rd June Venky’s were granted permission to transfer £3.5 million based on the potential consequences outlined in the above letter. They were instructed that an equal amount had to be set aside as a guarantee as any future action taken by the ED would be a financial penalty (so presumably they don’t want Venky’s sending over money then pleading poverty if/when they get a fine)

- On 16th August the ED reported that their investigation would be completed within 15 days

- On 31st October Venky’s submitted another application for a NOC in which they highlighted the reason for these funds. As we know, this was allowed with some conditions:

   A further guarantee of an equivalent sum

   Auditors at club have 3 working days to file   an End use Certificate (this certifies club are the end user of these funds and they won’t be transferred elsewhere)

The club must provide bank statements to prove these payments were made

 

- In this hearing it was outlined that club activities were not under suspicion, BUT the investigation was only at a “nascent stage”. This is very much contrary to what was reported on August 16th, and suggests these issues could run and run. It also suggests club finances will come under the microscope at some point

- Wording suggests that future remittances will be allowed, with the same caveats attached, but we’d still need to apply for the NOC, and this would likely not be granted if the club becomes under investigation

 

So while the money remitted has to be used for the specified purpose, it’s not entirely accurate to state Rovers can’t spend anything that hasn’t had court approval. They don’t care about the minutia of Rovers accounts (yet!), and funds generated by the club can be used for activities outside the scope of the court document (which covered Wages, tax, VAT, loan repayments, utilities and agents fees). So our fixture against Chelsea probably covered a chunk of the O’Riordan fee.

This latest round of funding we went for was likely to cover the same expenses from January til the end of the season. I expect there will be some funds available to cover some of those expenses, generated by TV payments, ticket sales, league payments etc. whether that lasts til the hearing in March, we will have to see. It almost certainly means that our very modest transfer budget has disappeared and we will be in another period of extreme austerity. I’m waiting for the announcement that I can’t sit in the Riverside on Monday.

So we will probably muddle through until the next date in March, with threats of winding up orders and missed payments, unless it gets moved again. Our transfer window plans are of no interest to Indian Courts who have cancelled and delayed several hearings already this year. Maybe there is some sort of contingency (player sale, short term loan). A further delay might be catastrophic though. Either way, this situation has become farcical and can’t continue much longer.

Miller, do you have a link to an article or any other evidence regarding the starting date of the investigation (year is fine) or the NOC? Thanks