The Lease dealings - as I see it. Might highlight the problems SISU will have with their case
- The lease at the Ricoh owned by ACL (2006) Ltd (term 49 years 364 days) plus under leases in name of ACL
- ACL (2006) Ltd owned by ACL
- The principle of an extended lease and the sale of shares was agreed by Council 7/10/2014
- The Charity agreed sale of its shares to Wasps 17/11/2014. Separate deal and terms from the CCC one - but seemingly connected transactions
- The lease extension created 29/01/2015
- the original lease dated 02/06/2006 and lease extension plus casino lease & ACL under-leases charged against the bond issue 13/05/2015
- Lease & extension actually owned by ACL (2006) Ltd which is owned by ACL which is now owned by Wasps Holdings. Think how important it became as to who owned what when CCFC hit administration, its the same principle. Wasps might own ACL group but Company Law will have ACL (2006) owning the original lease and its extension - that's important for the issue of no public sale
- should the extension fail then the remaining term of the original lease owned by ACL (2006) is still in place. ACL still has the right to be there for the remainder of the original lease
The 250 years is an extension of the original lease. It could only be offered to the owner of the original lease - ACL 2006 - which still had over 40 years left on it. To get an extension then you have to own the original. As such the extension is not an open market transaction as it can not be offered in public sale without the removal of the ACL (2006) lease - not planned to happen until 2056. What happened in previous discussions with SISU on ownership or that it was never offered are not relevant (are a smokescreen) did they ask for it, did they structure a deal to get it?
The value of the lease extension is not the value to Wasps/ACL it is the value to CCC at the time of disposal. This would usually be based on the discounted cash flows that the Council would receive over the period of the lease. Not sure but thought I saw that CCC would receive a nominal/peppercorn, rent or ground rent.
If CCC are receiving an annual amount then the disposal value is not actually £1m but £1m plus the rental incomes plus the social benefits of the deal
The value that Wasps place in their accounts in security for the bonds is not the same or even the basis of the value for CCC when they disposed of the long lease. It has no bearing whatsoever on the value to CCC of the lease at 07/10/2014 because CCC were not nor ever had traded from the site so did not derive the direct benefit of those income streams. CCC derive the benefit of the income from the head lease itself - a peppercorn rent and a lease premium paid by ACL
The intention to create the long lease was there Oct 2014 but the long lease did not in law exist until after Wasps took 100% control of ACL Group and then completed it in January 2015
As far as the share disposal goes then, CCC/Charity are not duty bound to sell to SISU, CCC as far as we know never received an offer in 2014 from SISU (didn't Seppala say she wouldn't interfere?), SISU had stated publically and in court that ACL was worthless (now argue it was worth something), are share disposals covered by same rules as land disposals (imo they are not)?
The JR2 deals with complaint against CCC how could that unpick the Charity sale? That leaves Wasps very much in place in the very unlikely event the original sale by CCC is wound back.
The council can point to the social and economic benefits that at the time a Wasps purchase could bring ..... its hard to argue that subsequently such benefits have not happened to some degree at least.
Any way that's my take on it - If SISU press on with JR2 then I can not see them winning, or anything changing, almost seems to me that they are hoping for a payment just to go away