The Takeover Panel has responded to Dave King’s arrogance and contempt for their instructions by issuing him with yet another legal summons; they have taken steps, immediately, to refer the matter to the Court of Session, in Edinburgh, to force him to comply.
Anyone who believed they would wait around, dragging their feet, or that King would somehow emerge unscathed from this ought to think again.
These people are not messing around. They deal with organisations a hundred times the size of the Ibrox NewCo on a daily basis, and with people a thousand times wealthier and more important than the convicted tax cheat.
Some on the Sevco fan sites have suggested that the Takeover Panel is toothless, because the “cold shoulder” sanction has only seldom being used. There’s a reason why this is so, and it’s got nothing to do with the organisation lacking teeth. It’s quite the opposite, in fact. The power of the “cold shoulder” is so far-reaching and consequential that only a handful of individuals has ever dared to provoke the Takeover Panel into using it.
King appears to be doing exactly that.
The speed with which they have moved to force his hand is amazing though. Less than 24 hours after the deadline expired, they have issued a writ. That is not the action of an organisation you’d want to mess with. The peril for Sevco, and King, is now enormous.
A smarter man than King would be afraid right now. It’s his move, in this deadly game. Does he even have a move left in him? One way or another, his answer better be good because these people are not playing. They are coming for him.
And Hell mend anyone standing in his vicinity.