Last night Sevco fans were celebrating the announcement that the club had switched banking to Close Brothers but the initial hysteria is likely to melt away quicker than the euphoria that greeted Craig Whyte, Pedro Caixinha or Mark Warburton up the marble stairs of dignity.
Close Brothers are far from a bank, their core business revolves around Invoice Financing where they offer facilities and loans for a premium provided there is bricks and mortar security. In this case you can add in tarmac with the Albion Car Park and Edmiston House included.
When Sevco published their accounts in November auditors Campbell Dallas recorded that Dave King’s New Oasis Asset Limited firm would fill in the £4m black hole of missing finance.
Like most promises from the South African based criminal it has turned out to be a little way short of the truth.
With no sign of the funds coming in from King the Sevco board have had to take emergency action with Close Brothers prepared to take on the risk, on their terms.
Rather than celebrate the new arrangement typing the words Close Brothers, Charles Green and Craig Whyte into a google search ought to bring Sevco fans out in a chill.
Close Brothers are the type of ‘lender’ that Green and Whyte like to deal with.
Following Green’s resignation in 2013 the Daily Record reported: “In 2000, Green struck a £30million “tax efficient investment” deal with finance giants Close Brothers through his own financial services company, Kingsbridge Holdings.
“Last year, Whyte sold £2million of future earnings from match-day catering at Ibrox to Close Brothers to pay for the lease of kitchen equipment.
“There is another link between Close Brothers and Whyte. One of the board members of Close Brothers is Ray Greenshields, who is also chairman of Octopus VCT3, who own Ticketus.
“Whyte funded his takeover of Rangers by selling off future season tickets to Ticketus.”
It only took a couple of days for the mainstream media to question the £8m transfer of Alfredo Morelos.
Even the gullible will soon be asking abou the Close Brothers deal, when the penny drops King is likely to become as popular a visitor to Ibrox as Green and Whyte.