Takeover

[Kit Kat Chunky]

Levels of debt? MSD have all of the security in a "water-tight" package, so they will be the main Creditor. There will be some "football debts" which are mainly fees owed on transfers (such as the monies we still owe on Grant and Grady) but these are disclosed in the accounts. Even the "Warmfront" loan is disclosed (yes I know this is Holdings).

So unless there is a mountain of unsecured debt owed to a third party Creditor - possibly somewhere in China, then it is difficult to know what this would be. MSD would have seen bank statements etc prior to sanctioning their loan(s) so they would be aware of any regular debt repayments from this (unless it was unsecured debt with a bullet repayment accruing interest, which is very hard to believe).

I hope this is a negotiating point, otherwise the future looks even bleaker than we imagined, if Lai is flogging off chunks of the share capital to keep the lights on - because Administration would be the only other option.

My interpretation - purely a hunch - is that this is more likely to be linked to the price being demanded by Lai.  In other words, if the vendor is demanding too high a price for the shares, with leaving the debt in place, then the purchaser isn’t willing to pay that much and still be left with the debt.  The purchaser will have assessed what it considers the value to be, both with the debt and without the debt. For example, wiling to pay £60m with no debt, or £25m with the debt.

My view is similar, Prag. This is now one giant game of poker.