Mayflower Share Discussion Threads

[soysoy] 07/6/2004 17:02

could be fsa .lse,dti.also the accountant`s

[scribbler101] 07/6/2004 14:41

Jak - IIRC, there is the odd rich city firm involved in issues, who could be liable for false prospectuses. And some of the Mayflower directors are fairly rich - and deserve to spend it on lawyers. Also, they may well have liability insurance.

[weeteez] 07/6/2004 06:22

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[soysoy] 06/6/2004 22:20

Some of the mayflower shareholders have contacted me ,wanting to take legal action , I can say that some very important inforamation has come to light and
and the serious fuard sqaud may be getting involled ,And if the case is proven all mayflowers shareholders could getting compo and any legal cost will be paid for
just give the action team 2 to 3 weeks and keep eye on the press

[soysoy] 03/6/2004 17:56

[e-mail]
[e-mail]

send your comments to above emails

[scribbler101] 03/6/2004 17:42

You do already. Receiver has said so.

[cmillar] 03/6/2004 08:56

When will I officially know that my 100k are worthless - I'm fed up with seeing them on my e*trade account with a supposed value of £6,750!!!

Mind you - keeps reminding me of my mistake......

[underhill] 31/5/2004 16:45

Should evidently have called the company Speedwell.

[scribbler101] 28/5/2004 17:19

SOYSOY ????


Summer lovin' had me a blast - summer lovin', happened so fast
I met a girl crazy for me - I met a boy, cute as can be
Summer days driftin' away, to uh-oh those summer nights

Tell me more, tell me more, did you get very far?

Tell me more, tell me more, did she put up a fight?

[soysoy] 27/5/2004 21:19

Not posted on here for a bit
so just saying that there are delevopments that are comimg to light and i will able to tell you soon what there are

[soysoy] 26/5/2004 08:45

Buyers found for Mayflower bus companies

Administrators from Deloitte have found buyers for portions of the Mayflower Group, including the TransBus chassis busines, which has been bought by a consortium of Scottish business figures including Glasgow Rangers owner David Murray and Stagecoach founders Brian Souter and Ann Gloag.

The deal, said to be worth £90m, agreed by Deloitte partners Nick Dargan and John Reid will save around 1,400 jobs at manufacturing plants in Falkirk and Larbert, plus 285 in Guildford, Surrey and 200 in Wigan. The TransBus plant in Belfast was not included in the deal and would be run down by the administrators with the loss of 90 jobs, The Scotsman reported.

The new TransBus owners gained financial backing from the Bank of Scotland and include investment bank Noble Grossart and Murray, who own roughly half of the new company between them, with Gloag and Souter holding around 40%.

Souter, who trained as an accountant with Arthur Andersen, is credited as being the driving force behind the deal. He indicated that the TransBus investment was a personal commitment that remain independent of his Perth-based transport group Stagecoach. He will continue to focus on Stagecoach and would not have time to devote the the coachbuilding company.

TransBus is one Stagecoach's suppliers, but Souter indicated he would step back from board discussions about bus procurement to avoid any conflict of interest.

Deloitte has already sold TransBus coachmaking subsidiary Plaxton to a management buy-out a week ago and continues to look for buyers of other elements of the Mayflower Group, which went into administration at the end of March with debts of £162m and a £25m hole in its pensions fund.

[soysoy] 25/5/2004 12:05

FROM FSA




MAYFLOWER CORPORATION PLC "THE COMPANY"
Thank you for your email dated 10 April 2004 sent to our Consumer Enquiries Department. We have noted your complaint regarding the Company and are grateful to you for drawing our attention to your concerns.
The UK Listing Authority ("UKLA") is the part of the Financial Services Authority responsible for, among other things, investigating potential breaches of the Listing Rules.
We are, as you, concerned about shareholder protection. The UKLA actively monitors companies' compliance with the Listing Rules and if the UKLA finds that a company has contravened the Listing Rules, it is possible for it to be sanctioned by means of a censure, the details of which may be published.
Complaints made against the conduct of listed companies are taken very seriously. However, for statutory and policy reasons the UKLA's investigations are treated as strictly confidential and, unless they result in a public censure, the UKLA does not comment on specific cases.
Yours sincerely,

[soysoy] 25/5/2004 11:40

LAWYERS yesterday issued a warning that the trustees of Mayflower, the collapsed busmaker, could use incoming legislation to recoup pension liabilities from company directors such as John Simpson, the former chief executive.
However, under section 35 of the controversial new Pensions Bill, the trustees would have to prove that the directors deliberately channelled money away that should have been used to prop up the pension fund.



Mayflower went into administration earlier this year after a £20 million black hole was found in its accounts that came to light after a former employee blew the whistle on accounting irregularities.

Under section 35 of the government Pensions Bill, former Mayflower directors such as David Donnelly, finance director, and John Fleming, joint managing director, could be personally liable to plug the pension fund hole.

One leading City lawyer said: "If it could be proved that the Mayflower directors had deliberately tried to avoid a debt due to the pension scheme then (the trustees) would have a strong case. But they would have to prove there had been wrongdoing."

In a further complication, it emerged yesterday that, should the Mayflower directors be successfully sued, John Major, the former Prime Minister, could escape a lawsuit.

Mr Major resigned as a non-executive director of Mayflower in March 2003, just three months before the date the retrospective section 35 becomes effective.

The warning of potential action came yesterday as Deloitte & Touche, the Mayflower administrator, sold TransBus, Mayflower's bus-making unit, after signing a deal with a consortium that includes Brian Souter, the millionaire chief executive of Stagecoach Group.

The deal does not include TransBus's pension liabilities.

A sale price has not been disclosed but the deal was valued at £90 million by Mr Souter's consortium, which is headed by Noble Grossart, Sir Angus Grossart's investment bank, and David Murray, a Scottish entrepreneur.

Mr Souter's sister, Ann Gloag, is also a stakeholder but, like her brother, is investing in a private capacity and not as a Stagecoach director.

Sir Angus is also a non-executive joint vice-chairman of Royal Bank of Scotland, one of Mayflower's biggest lenders.

Other bidders have suggested that TransBus's assets are worth between £30 million and £40 million but that the successful bidder would have to commit a similar amount in working capital.

The administrator would only recover the proceeds of the asset sales.

The TransBus sale brings the total raised by Nick Dargan, of Deloitte, to around £60 million - substantially less than Mayflower's £250 million debt mountain.

Banks are owed £160 million and bondholders a further £90 million. It is unclear how much of the bank debt is wiped out by Mr Dargan's asset sales.

Mr Dargan has to pay off secured creditors, normally the banks, before he can address Mayflower's unsecured creditors, which include the bondholders and trustees of pension schemes. A meeting of Mayflower creditors is scheduled for Friday.

[soysoy] 22/5/2004 08:12

May 22, 2004

Mayflower chiefs 'may be liable for pension hole'
By Tom Bawden and Peter Klinger



LAWYERS yesterday issued a warning that the trustees of Mayflower, the collapsed busmaker, could use incoming legislation to recoup pension liabilities from company directors such as John Simpson, the former chief executive.
However, under section 35 of the controversial new Pensions Bill, the trustees would have to prove that the directors deliberately channelled money away that should have been used to prop up the pension fund.



Mayflower went into administration earlier this year after a £20 million black hole was found in its accounts that came to light after a former employee blew the whistle on accounting irregularities.

Under section 35 of the government Pensions Bill, former Mayflower directors such as David Donnelly, finance director, and John Fleming, joint managing director, could be personally liable to plug the pension fund hole.

One leading City lawyer said: "If it could be proved that the Mayflower directors had deliberately tried to avoid a debt due to the pension scheme then (the trustees) would have a strong case. But they would have to prove there had been wrongdoing."

In a further complication, it emerged yesterday that, should the Mayflower directors be successfully sued, John Major, the former Prime Minister, could escape a lawsuit.

Mr Major resigned as a non-executive director of Mayflower in March 2003, just three months before the date the retrospective section 35 becomes effective.

The warning of potential action came yesterday as Deloitte & Touche, the Mayflower administrator, sold TransBus, Mayflower's bus-making unit, after signing a deal with a consortium that includes Brian Souter, the millionaire chief executive of Stagecoach Group.

The deal does not include TransBus's pension liabilities.

A sale price has not been disclosed but the deal was valued at £90 million by Mr Souter's consortium, which is headed by Noble Grossart, Sir Angus Grossart's investment bank, and David Murray, a Scottish entrepreneur.

Mr Souter's sister, Ann Gloag, is also a stakeholder but, like her brother, is investing in a private capacity and not as a Stagecoach director.

Sir Angus is also a non-executive joint vice-chairman of Royal Bank of Scotland, one of Mayflower's biggest lenders.

Other bidders have suggested that TransBus's assets are worth between £30 million and £40 million but that the successful bidder would have to commit a similar amount in working capital.

The administrator would only recover the proceeds of the asset sales.

The TransBus sale brings the total raised by Nick Dargan, of Deloitte, to around £60 million - substantially less than Mayflower's £250 million debt mountain.

Banks are owed £160 million and bondholders a further £90 million. It is unclear how much of the bank debt is wiped out by Mr Dargan's asset sales.

Mr Dargan has to pay off secured creditors, normally the banks, before he can address Mayflower's unsecured creditors, which include the bondholders and trustees of pension schemes. A meeting of Mayflower creditors is scheduled for Friday.

[soysoy] 22/5/2004 07:58

COMPANIES UK: TransBus takeover sees Scottish win
By Rebecca Bream in London and Mark Nicholson in Edinburgh
Financial Times; May 22, 2004



A consortium of prominent Scottish business leaders has won the battle to take over TransBus, the busmaking unit of insolvent engineering group Mayflower, after a last- minute £90m bid trumped an offer from Electra Partners.

The group, led by Scottish investment bank Noble Grossart and including Stagecoach founders Brian Souter and Ann Gloag, said its bid had secured the future of the UK's largest bus manufacturer and that TransBus would continue to operate from its Scottish base.

TransBus owns the Alexander bus body business, the Dennis chassis unit and the parts and customer care division. Alexander operates in five locations, including Falkirk, Belfast and Wigan while Dennis is based in Guildford.

Mayflower collapsed at the end of March after the discovery of a £17m accounting hole. TransBus and other assets are being sold by administrator Deloitte in an effort to recover as much as possible of Mayflower's £240m debts.

Deloitte has already sold TransBus's Plaxton coachbuilding business to Aberdeen Murray Johnstone for £15m and Mayflower's offshore wind turbine installation ship to Mizuho International, the Japanese bank, for £13m. Mayflower shareholders have been told not to expect any money.

The Noble Grossart consortium said: "Our ability to pull together such a high-profile team in such a short space of time to secure the future of a Scotland-based company reinforces our long-held belief that global companies can develop from a Scottish base."

Sir Angus Grossart, founder of the bank, has long been a powerful champion of Scottish business.

Mr Souter and his sister Ms Gloag, who between them own 26 per cent of Stagecoach, each participated in the consortium as minority shareholders.

Though their investment was made privately, TransBus is also a significant supplier for Stagecoach.

TransBus is in line to supply about 60 per cent of Stagecoach's total new vehicle orders.

David Murray, another of the consortium's investors and controlling shareholder of Glasgow Rangers Football Club, is also commercially linked to TransBus through MultiMetals, part of Murray International Holdings, the metals group owned by Mr Murray and which is a leading supplier of aluminium to the bus manufacturer.

Electra had been confident of clinching the deal until late on Thursday, when Deloitte received Noble Grossart's late bid. Other members of Electra's syndicate included Dexter Capital Group, an activist investor that owns 5 per cent of Mayflower shares, and Rutland Fund Management.









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[soysoy] 17/5/2004 23:04

edit shows on every post that you put on but only you can see it