Hearts, Hearts

Hearts, Hearts vainglorious Hearts,
Seems that they've gone to hell in a handcart.
In our anguish they wallow,
Now their laughter sounds hollow.
You're out of tomorrows,
Vainglorious Hearts.

The entire board of Hearts owners UBIG resigns
By Brian McLauchlin
BBC Scotland The entire board of Ukio Banko Investicine Grupe (UBIG), the investment group who own Hearts, has resigned from the Lithuanian company.

Vladimir Romanov, who was majority owner of the bank Ukio Bankas, which Lithuania's central bank declared insolvent last month, resigned as chairman of UBIG on 27 February.

However, he still remains the owner of Scottish Premier League side Hearts.

Club director Sergejus Fedotovas has also resigned from UBIG.

The Tynecastle club has been available to purchase since Romanov made it known he was willing to sell in November 2011.

Funding from Lithuania for the Scottish Premier League club has been cut, as have Hearts' operating costs.

A share issue helped raise money but it fell short of the £1.8m it hoped to accumulate to keep the club operating until the end of the season.

The appeal to supporters came when the tax authorities issued Hearts with a winding-up order over an unpaid £1.75m sum, while a separate £450,000 tax bill was paid just before Christmas.

The SPL issued Hearts with a transfer ban last year after two seasons of intermittent late payments of wages and bonuses.

This was lifted in mid-January but the club may still only sign under-21 players until the end of the season and will be restricted to a one-out, one-in policy.

Lithuania’s smooth closing of insolvent lender Ukio Bankas AB (UKB1L) moved ahead as rival Siauliu Bankas AB (SAB1L) bought state debt to fund the deposit-insurance fund and said it was reopening some of Ukio’s former branches.

Siauliu will reopen 25 former Ukio branches, starting with six tomorrow, the bank based in the city of Siauliai said in an e-mailed statement today. Separately, Siauliu said today it purchased 799 million litai ($301 million) of government debt to help the state deposit-insurance fund finance a deal in which Siauliu is taking over 2.7 billion litai of Ukio deposits.

The Baltic nation has managed to renew service to most clients of the former sixth-largest bank less than three weeks after the central bank suspended the lender, saying risky lending to related parties led it to insolvency. Standard & Poor’s Rating Service last week praised Lithuania for resolving Ukio’s woes without destabilizing the country’s other banks.

“The authorities’ response serves as a demonstration of strength,” S&P said in a report on Feb. 27. “We expect the sale of Ukio’s stronger assets and guaranteed deposits to Siauliu Bankas to be managed without causing a major disruption in the sector, nor resulting in significant system-wide withdrawals of deposits.”

EBRD Support

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Siauliu’s largest shareholder with a 19.6 percent stake, helped strengthen Siauliu for the partial takeover by granting it a 20 million-euro ($26 million) subordinated loan.

The deal with Siauliu allowed the deposit-insurance fund to reduce payouts related with Ukio’s collapse to 800 million litai, instead of 2.7 billion litai. The fund will seek to recover its money through bankruptcy proceedings for the Ukio assets not taken over by Siauliu, the Finance Ministry has said.

Among those assets are loans that Ukio Bankas had made to a sister investment company, Ukio Banko Investicine Grupe, or UBIG, which is controlled by Ukio Bankas majority owner Vladimir Romanov and owns 79 percent of Scottish soccer club Heart of Midlothian as well as property in other countries. UBIG’s entire board of directors resigned last week and hasn’t been replaced, Baltic News Service reported today, citing the company registry in Vilnius. That includes both Romanov, who was chairman of UBIG, and Hearts’ Director Sergejus Fedotovas, who was also on the board, BNS said.

Fedotovas declined to comment on the board situation at UBIG in an e-mailed response to Bloomberg questions today.

it doesn't look good unless they can find a buyer

Although it doesn't, of itself, mean the end, the danger, as we know only too well, in having an oligarch owner, is there if fortune deserts them.
No-one who has any interest in Hearts, or who might feel any compunction if the club was to go under, now has any power with it's owners or its bankers.
When yer insolvent, that's nae place to be.