So we’re officially no longer part of the Nice family

Will be interesting to see how this affects us going foward... might be a good question to pose tomorrow.

 

How much ?

 

£90m is the reported amount

 

Which in too many BFC fans' eyes now means we have £90m.

 

https://m.ogcnice.com/en/news/37630/ineos-completes-deal-to-acquire-ogc-nice

Gives them more time to concentrate on making sure we aren't relegated for the second time in just three seasons with us.

 

Ha ha. Nicely put. May well get a reaction.

 

It's a odd article to not mention the previous owners or to wish them the best in the future.

 

Leave me out of it ....

 

I expect us to sign Ollie McBurnie with £5m of it.

 

Well the Nice fans should be happy about this they hated our/their owners.

 

Im not sure being in the family gave us anything more than being out of it.

 

I vaguely recall Conway had given comment in the ineos bid build up that they were in it for the long haul at Nice. I know he's certainly said the same with us. And you consider they are supposedly interested in Partick.

When they first bought us, and seeing as they focused a great deal on their Nice experiences, I wondered if the reason for buying us was to share resources and for the 2 clubs to assist each other. I thought that may well be the case when GG joined them as CEO.

It's been a bumpy ride the last year and I think once the former Nice CEO highlighted some of the financing, the fans dissatisfaction jumped, and the sale suggests that first inclination isn't correct.

The other consideration was to leverage the club to get a foothold in the region to further their other business interests. I thought that we might see a sponsor from further afield that was more lucrative. Obviously that didn't happen and we had a local sponsor.

The Beane link and the board having representation in India, China and US, was a possible signpost to leveraging audiences in those countries and with the ifollow platform, looking at pushing revenues from overseas subscriptions. That may be occurring to some degree, but we've not had much confirmation of that.

So the question is still, what do they want from the club?

Is Nice just an example of their general motives? They bought us in a distressed state and that will certainly have been a cheaper deal compared to other possible clubs they wanted to buy. (I recall Hull and Middlesbrough knocked them back, and think there was one other.) So if they choose to dispose of us, if anyone is interested, they will benefit from the low purchase price they acquired at. But that doesn't feel like a particular effective strategy. Unless we got in the top flight, our next sale price is likely to still be nominal in the scheme of football things. They certainly aren't going to invest through share issues or written off loans to kick start the process like Bristol City and Brentford did, and so far, the developments at the club have been pretty nominal (of course things go on behind the scenes, but little has been outlined to the supporters as to what is going to happen with the ground, training set ups, commercial and marketing activities).

Was Nice just an operational failure after they lucked out with Champions League qualification, was the money they got too attractive? Are they cash light so had to realise an asset? Where does Partick fit into this (if they can get it through)?

We're what, about 20 months into their ownership and I genuinely don't know what the reason for acquiring us is. The most sense to me is opportunism to take a debt free distressed asset, milk it a little and then if they can stabilise us in the championship, flip it for financial gain.

 

Rumour is that the previous owner was the driving force behind this and is due to return to the day to day running in the club.
Wonder where that leaves GG

 

I thought Brentford was other club mentioned prior to buying us.
I suspect with OGC a profit of £70million was seen as too good to refuse (purchased for £20 million) and probably the maximum they would ever get out of it.
Doesn’t answer the question about us as can’t see them ever getting that sort of return even in the Premier league and I certainly don’t believe they bought us to skim off a million here and there.

 

Maybe we can now afford a full complement of goalkeepers?

 

I don’t know why but I thought only Chien and Conway out of our owner collective were involved in the Nice deal , good luck to Nice with the Ineos bloke he’s a total t.wat

 

They were. Alex Zheng and Elliot Hayes were the others.

 

Why? Because he's not a Remainer and he doesn't like bankers?

He could have bought Bolton or Bury though I agree instead of a French club.

 

Undisclosed ;-)