An update on the Bristol & West Scheme.

Last updated : 09 February 2005 By Ralph Beales
They explained that they did not get involved with football clubs, as part of their usual business; it was not a part of their strategy and they had other reasons for getting involved. They further explained that they had initially agreed a short-term loan, to cover part of the new stadium funds, whilst a more sensible loan was put in place by the club. Unfortunately the club were unable to restructure the debt and B&W were left with an unwelcome loan on their books, that did not stand up to close scrutiny by their own investors, as being core business.

All that aside, they were in full agreement of an offer to repay enough of the debt (£17,000) to reduce the total outstanding to the original amount of the loan and willingly agreed to postpone their stadium re-possession order, by three months, if the club resumed their repayments. Further, Bristol & West Investments were able to confirm that a further significant payment, would mean that they would put off their re-possession order for seven months, until the end of August 2005, when, if the club had continued to meet the interest payments, they would look favourably at a possible restructure of the debt. This was confirmed by email within four hours of the meeting and a written copy sent in the post.

The pledges/loans being made by the fans, are treated in the same way as the loan note scheme of 2003 and will attract a similar level of interest. They will be scheduled to run over ten years, although there is no reason why additional investors cannot join in at any time. The main advantages to the club, are the slashing of a severe interest rate (albeit a fairly standard one for this kind of debt) and the replacement of a commercial lender with supporters of the club, who empathise with the club's current predicament.

It's worth pointing out, that B&W Investments plc, could have made attempts to have the club wound up, in the past two years and haven't. They could have applied quite severe financial penalties for non-payment of capital and/or interest and haven't and they have actually reduced their interest rate, to 1% per month.

If we had 300 AFCB fans, who were interested in putting up £1,000 each, at 6% interest, over the next 10 years, or even 100 fans, prepared to put up £3,000, we could clear the B&W debt and slash interest repayments by half.

The Exiles have contributed to this scheme and indeed, it is run by two Exiles, Nick Douch and Ralph Beales. Any Exile interested in getting involved, please write to exiledcherries@aol.com and we'll pass your message along.