Portsmouth’s administrator ‘pretty certain’ of 75 per cent vote for CVA

By Nick Harris

15 June 2010

Portsmouth’s administrator Andrew Andronikou has told sportingintelligence this evening that he is “pretty certain” that his proposal to creditors to take the club out of administration will be accepted at a meeting on Thursday.

The plan offers creditors 20p in the pound, and although one major creditor, HMRC, has already indicated it will vote against the deal, Andronikou thinks he will still achieve the necessary votes (75 per cent of the value of all creditors) to take Pompey out of administration via a Company Voluntary Arrangement.

“We’re pretty certain we’re going to get to 75 per cent,” Andronikou told sportingintelligence, while declining to detail precisely what the 75 per cent threshold represents in cash terms. Pompey’s debts have been estimated as high as nudging £140m in recent months, and the overall total for voting purposes remains unspecified for certain.

“We’ve had a lot of proxies voting in favour already and we think we’re going to get there,” Andronikou said. “But obviously we won’t know for sure until Thursday, and everything else surrounding the club’s future will come after that.”

That last remark was a reference to the club’s future ownership and to the manager’s position.

It is expected the pre-administration owner Balram Chainrai could emerge as Portsmouth’s next owner too, although Andronikou insists other interested parties remain in the frame. It is also expected that Steve Cotterill will be the new manager, appointed perhaps as early as Thursday, but Andronikou would not confirm that and says it that is a matter now for the club’s new chief executive David Lampitt.

Pompey, relegated from the Premier League at the end of the 2009-10 season after a woeful season that included a nine-point deduction for entering administration, hope they will not be hit by a “double jeopardy” deduction of further points in the Championship. Andronikou says he has been assured that as long as Pompey exit administration via a CVA, they won’t get further points deducted.

Legal view: Why Thursday’s meeting matters