Shareholders Takeover Announcement Questions

We've been contacted by a number of shareholders following receipt of the official announcement from Manchester City Plc ("the Club") with reference to "preliminary discussions with a third party regarding a possible offer being made for the Company". Those shareholders wanted to know what the document actually means and raised a couple of questions worthy of sharing here.

For good measure the announcement in it's full glory can be found here http://www.plusmarketsgroup.com/story.shtml?ISIN=GB0005599336&NewsID=23836

The official announcement is a fairly standard document and in simple terms it confirms that the Club is in very early talks that may or may not lead to an offer being made for the Club. Due to the Club being listed on Plus Markets it has to adhere to their listing rules and the Club has drawn attention to certain rules that apply at the time of the announcement.

If anyone is interested and has some spare time you can find the full details of the various applicable rules here http://www.plusmarketsgroup.com/PLUS_regulation.shtml All we need to remember is that in situations like these the Takeover Code applies which sets out how business should be transacted during a period where a takeover may be forthcoming.

Next to the questions raised. One shareholder asked "Is Stefan Borson (as named in the announcement) the potential new investor?". Stefan Borson isn't the new investor but would appear to act as the facilitator of potential new investment and/ or a takeover of Manchester City Plc. Stefan Borson works for Investec Investment Banking ("Investec") and I understand that Investec were appointed by Manchester City Plc to attract a potential investor and/ or investors to the Club. This is the reason why Stefan Borson’s contact details were listed in the announcement.

Another shareholder asks "Will the takeover be completed in time for the January transfer window?". Assuming that it is a takeover that is being considered, in my personal opinion, a takeover of the Club could not be completed in such a short period of time. There is a lot of due diligence to be undertaken by both parties including the potential investor looking at the Company's books in detail and this will need to be completed before any offer is made to the board of the Club. Whether an offer will lead to a takeover, new investment or something else remains to be seen but at this point in time it is far too early to speculate about what may or may not happen. As frustrating as it may be, we will have to wait for the facts to emerge in due course.

If you have any further questions to raise please send them our way, if we can answer them we will, if we can’t we will find someone who can! Please e-mail us at mcfcsupporters@hotmail.co.uk

Best wishes

Ollie