The soap opera around the ailing second division club KV Oostende gets a new episode with the appointment of a provisional administrator. He will explore the options, including bankruptcy, reorganization and a takeover.
The Bruges section of the Ghent corporate court has appointed lawyer Werner Van Oosterwyck as provisional administrator of football club KV Oostende. This concerns a decision on a unilateral petition.
This means that the club can still dispute the loss of control over bank accounts and assets. The administrator’s mandate runs for three weeks, but can also be extended. The decision on extension rests with the chairman of the corporate court. According to information from De Tijd, there will be opposition to the provisional administration anyway.
The administration is a new step in a long-standing financial and sporting malaise. The club had to provide access to his financial situation to the judge in September. This was partly the result of bailiff seizures by unpaid suppliers. KVO is last in the second division, partly after points deduction due to defaults. The club appealed against this to the special Belgian arbitration court Cepani.
The players also briefly went on strike this month over unpaid wages. All staff have now been paid. However, many invoices are still open. “KV Oostende must also receive money itself, with which the club can repay outstanding invoices,” the administrator told De Tijd.
Exit chairman
The appointment of an administrator comes at the request of two former club executives, Thorsten Theys and Frank Dierckens. The latter – a local entrepreneur with more than a quarter of the shares – resigned as chairman last week due to dissatisfaction with the management by the American owners. If the club goes bankrupt due to the current management, he will not only see his shares evaporate. According to our information, he provided loans to the club for 700,000 euros in mid-January.
Full screen view Frank Dierckens ©Photo News
There is also a money issue with former operational director Thorsten Theys. He refers to unpaid invoices of 42,000 euros and a termination fee of half a million. This is the result of the unilateral termination last year by KV Oostende of a contract with Theys’ management company, despite an ongoing agreement.
Administrator Van Oosterwyck will have full control over both the board of directors and day-to-day operational management. He must ensure that no money or other assets are siphoned off. Another priority is to investigate what the best option is for the club: bankruptcy, dissolution, judicial organization or takeover. De Tijd learned that a potential buyer recently came knocking, but the club management declined despite obvious financial problems at the time.
Complex owner construction
There is a complex ownership structure behind KV Oostende. The club is 72 percent owned by the Oostende Investment Company vehicle in which dozens of investors participate. Key figures are Randy Frankel, Chien Lee and Paul Conway. The American controls 13 percent of KV Oostende through the Pacific Media Group vehicle and is currently positioning himself as the physically present pawn of the owners. He would also have been present at the pleas before the Cepani court in Brussels on Tuesday.
However, according to the criticism of minority shareholder Frank Dierckens, Conway no longer has an official mandate. His resignation as director was also published in the Staatsblad in October.
The soap doesn’t stop there. Conway was reportedly reappointed as director in December, along with Grace Hung, Maximilian Kothny and Mikhail Ponomarev. That operation resulted from an operation to attract new foreign investors and strengthen the balance sheet. The dismissal of Randy Frankel and one of his partners with a smaller interest, Michael Kalt, also fit within that context. However, no trace of all this can yet be found in the publications of the Staatsblad.
Discussion stadium
That complex tangle of investors is just one of many knots for the administrator. Bankruptcy would mean that the club disappears. Then it will start again in provincial unless KVO makes a new start by taking over a base number from another club in the national series. The fate of KVO as a professional club may also be uncertain in terms of judicial organization.
In the event of KVO’s failure, the city of Ostend will become owner of the stadium. The club now rents this from the vehicle Alychlo from entrepreneur Marc Coucke.
A possible bankruptcy would also have consequences for former owner Marc Coucke. He left KVO after taking over Anderlecht at the end of 2017, but remained the owner of a stand that he built with his vehicle Alychlo. The club has to pay rent for this. In the event of KVO’s failure, the city of Ostend will become owner of the stadium. An additional complication is that the tax authorities have questions about the financial structure that has been set up around the stadium, as pointed out by former director Thorsten Theys in an interview with Het Nieuwsblad last weekend. The administrator will therefore have to meet with quite a few parties in the coming weeks.
2024-01-23 18:36:55
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