TOPIC: FAO Andrew Lapping

Can you tell us if you had the entire £1.26m in ready cash? Not pledges or offers, cold cash ready to go...

Many thanks, CCU

A FAO Laffy topic...ahhh, it's like being back on the old board

It's a valid question, and a simple Yes/No...

FAO Andy Lapp:

Can you send a press release out asking the board what the fucks going on, cos they've had about 20 days more than the 5-10 days they asked you to wait. Ta.

has AL registered?

You would think he will given he liked talking on the previous forum?

I would guess at no due to he was still talking about producing a mini prospectus for would be investors

As if investors are going to hand over £1.26m to Lapping (or anyone else for that matter) for something that isn't in place and ready to go. At best he would have commitments amounting to the £1.26m but nobody will have handed over the cash, for the simple reason that this is the real world and that is how things work not some computer game. The only time the money would ever have materialised would have been when the prospectus was published and an agreed date had been reached for the deal to settle.

jelly wrote:
Does not make much sense when half a dozen have been revealed though does it?
Still think AL was backing himself to bring them in after the event.

Seriously? !?

I give up.

If the £1.26m was in place I'm sure we'll have it confirmed...

Have we got a few Greek economists on here?
Say he did have the money, in hard cash, what do you think he should have been doing with it over the past few weeks since the deal went cold? Under his bed, in a CUFC piggy bank, in a safe behind a painting on the wall?

People will not have given Lapping money, the best they will have done is to have pledged support (some publically, some not). The idea of the prospectus would be to give some legal framework for the investment. It would also be used to generate any additional investment required to get to £1.26m, or whatever the figure is.

Jelly,
Nobody is doubting AL has the money (where has this been said?) but AL has already confirmed it is not his money going in (I think he said he was putting in £50K, but happy to be corrected on the exact level).
No one has suggested that the pledgers would/should hand over their money now.
What is being questioned (only questioned mind) is why most of the pledgers have not even come forward and only £250K ish has been confirmed. Who knows, there may be a genuine reason for it.
Don't forget that AJ and JN appear to have pulled ALs pants down on this.
Not that I believe it, but could they have had doubts that the money was actually there?
Even less sure what the Greek economy has got to do with it. Thought there problems were synonymous with early retirement, not clinging on to employment and freebies

Couple of posts in this topic alone questioning whether AL actually had the cash (as opposed to pledges). AL was putting in 100k I think, may have been more. I know one investor was putting in 50k, and presume Robin Brown and the others actually named were putting in at least 100k between them, but you have to remember there were other investors who hadn't yet been named, that were definitely there.

Call me a brown-noser, suck up, whatever you like...but I trusted Andrew Lapping - maybe I was swayed more by knowing one of the other investors. I believe what he was saying, and genuinely believe he had 800k pledged, and would've reached the 1.26m easily.

cufcdeano wrote:
Be careful you'll be accused of being in Lapping's arse next, that's my job

Your post is spot on and what others are echoing. The same/similar structure was used by Swansea and look at where they are now albeit they got a new stadium.

Jelly - Would you let an outsider appoint key positions within your business, without seeing proof of investment? That's why I ask if the £1.26m was ready to go so to speak. If we were at the point where AL was ready to appoint a new MD etc, surely the £'s must've been in position ready for their appointments? The suggestion that is being banded about by a few folk, is that the BoD had asked for such assurances, and they weren't exactly forthcoming. If so, then regardless of what we all think, they were within their right to move the goalposts to protect the business - Any business would likely do the same in that position, regardless of public perception.

I'm only asking so we can either substantiate or put to bed these rumours that have come from the business community in North Cumbria...

Putting myself in the Nixon/Jenkins shoes if such a scenario arose, would I;

a) announce that assurances were asked for, but not forthcoming, that the investment was ready to go so we're carrying on the status quo?

b) Give the consortium more time to get the funds in place ?

c) invent a billionaire and never say anything again?

It doesn't make any sense to go with c. There has to be something in this other investor line (billionaire or not). There have been too many people speak out convinced that there's something in it (Lord Clarke, Andy Bell) for there not to be.

CCU wrote:
No, I probably wouldn't let an outsider make such a key appointment, though it would depend on how confident I was in the thing going ahead. AJ and JN made that choice. I still don't get this obsession with Lapping having the £1.26m all ready to go - he has never suggested that he has got that ready to go, just expressed a confidence that he would be able to get to that figure.

I don't agree that they are within their rights to move the goalposts. I think they were within their rights to demand certain assurances and if they were not forthcoming then they were right to agree but I don't think they were right to lead people along and then change the rules of the game (if that is what happened). The other thing, surely the proposed takeover wouldn't actually take place without the funds becoming available when needed - you can't say you will invest £1.26m into a business in exchange for a share restructure and revised holdings and then expect it to go ahead when you don't have the cash.

One final thing, the current directors don't appear to shy in having a go at Andrew Lapping for whatever reason. I find it extremely unlikely that they would be reticent to criticise them publicly. By saying they had significant doubts about the funds actually being in place they could have given everyone a perfectly reasonable explanation for the delay. In coming up with this new investor they then appear to be trying to discredit Lapping via their business network - something entirely in keeping with their snidey, underhand methods.

I don't know Lapping from Adam but I do know that I trust him far more than I would ever trust Nixon or Jenkins for the simple reason that he has given me no reason not to trust him, while I wouldn't trust those two no matter what they told me based on their recent track record.

BOTH Lapping and Nixon interviewed the candidates for MD and Commercial manager.
It would have been Nixon who would have approved the positions on the advice of Lapping, so it would not have been an outsider making the appointment..

jelly wrote:
You mention there about the 'custodians' not being shy in having a pop at Lapping.
Don't forget that he's a Carlisle United fan so it wouldn't be very typical of them to treat him nicely, would it?

cufcdeano wrote:
Well call me a brown-noser, suck up, even sucker. Andrew Lapping got me believing again, got me going to games supporting MY club after years of not bothering. The way that Nixon and Jenkins have treated him, and the fans, is disgusting, but hardly surprising. They've been doing it for years.

Now the dust is settling, it is becoming clearer AL's plan was going to be an embarrassment to JN and AJ purely by it's simplicity if nothing else.

The idea that AL had a 'CUFC pledges' bank account and went around collecting cash like he was doing a sponsored run is, quite frankly, laughable. This is the real world and that is not how things work.

Rumours from the North Cumbria business community?! Does that include Pioneer, Carlisle Glass and Cowens? If Lapping didn't have the money and was just making it up in an elaborate power grab then i imagine Nixon and Jenkins would delight in coming out and saying so. There was no mention of that at all. Instead we got the mystery investor line. Rumours are just that. The rumours are that Richard Branson is the mystery billionaire........... and I rest my case.

Blues86 wrote:
More legal paperwork, but you can imagine a just giving if it helps...

As for business folk, there's plenty been approached by both sides, people talk, word gets around - wether it's correct is the reason for the original post, to clear it up.

Just registered on this new site

To clear things up

-I set out to raise £1.26m and spelt out that it needed a Prospectus.
-In the interim,I sounded out a number of businessmen about investing,running in tandem with DD
-I was confident from outset of raising the full amount,possibly more
-I released names of those who were happy to do so
-I kept the Board abreast of progress throughout and gave them a full list of those who were committed at the beginning of May.This list was more than enough to fill the 'placing',even before the Prospectus was complete
-I advised we needed a Prospectus to stay onside with Regulatory rules governing the raising of money for companies.
-I was personally investing £100k

All the conjecture and conspiracy stuff is amusing but wrong.I would not have embarked on this whole adventure without confidence in raising the money.Its what I do for a living and like any other company raising money,you set out your stall,sound out interest,then issue a document which investors sign up to.You do NOT walk down Warwick Road hanging out share application forms to Joe Public-it's against the law and frankly no one would put money into a football club with out having some sensible documentation and DD

As for the current position,there is nothing to report.I have not spoken to JN for 3 weeks,nor for that matter anyone else from the Club.

Hope this clears things-again

Regards

Andrew

Laffy wrote:
Thanks for that Andrew...