Romanov poised to increase his stake in Hearts

EWAN MURRAY

HEARTS have called a press conference for this morning, when they are expected to announce Vladimir Romanov is increasing his stake in the Tynecastle club, which will trigger an offer to buy out the entire shareholding.

Romanov, whose current Hearts stake sits at 29.9 per cent via Ukio bank in which he is a significant shareholder, will therefore cross the threshold after which he would be obliged to make an offer at the same value per share to the company's remaining shareholders under City rules.

The news comes almost a year to the day that The Scotsman revealed Romanov was poised to launch a takeover bid for the Gorgie club, after he purchased a 10.3 per cent stake in Hearts from the club's former chairman Leslie Deans on 19 October, 2004.

He had earlier agreed a deal to buy out the 19.6 per cent stake of the club's former chief executive, Chris Robinson, for just under £870,000. That transaction was completed on 1 February this year, in time for Romanov to cancel the sale of Hearts' Tynecastle Stadium to CALA Homes.

The move also took the Lithuanian banker's holding to 29.9 per cent, above which any shareholder in a public limited company cannot go without making an offer to remaining shareholders.

It is unlikely that any new deal will be for a significantly different value than the one agreed with Robinson, who received 35 pence per share. Hearts' shares closed last night at 31.5 pence.

The Scottish Media Group, which retains a 19.9 per cent stake in Hearts, has made it clear in the past that it would be willing to sell at the right price, while Robert McGrail, whose Mortgage Advisory Centre business went into liquidation in July, has a 10 per cent shareholding in the club.

In March, Romanov announced to the Stock Exchange that he had transferred his total shareholding to Ukio, which in turn was named as the club's shirt sponsor in June. It was also expected to assume the club's existing debts from Halifax Bank of Scotland. Hearts' last set of interim results, published in April, revealed a pre-tax loss of £221,000 for the six-month spell ending in January of this year.

Romanov also retains a financial interest in Lithuanian club FBK Kaunas, and MTV Ripo of Belarus. Earlier this month, it was revealed he had offered Inverness Caledonian Thistle the use of his extensive European scouting network, which has already been responsible for bringing several players to Hearts.

The exact reasons for Romanov wanting to increase his stake in the Scottish Premierleague leaders should become clear at this morning's scheduled press conference, but there is a strong feeling that Hearts are keen to delist from the Stock Exchange and revert to a private limited company.

Neither a spokesman for Romanov, who will be at Tynecastle today, nor Hearts chairman George Foulkes was willing to comment last night.

Taken from the Scotsman