Portsmouth Administrators Line Up Balram Chainrai for Sale

ADMINISTRATORS TO PORTSMOUTH FC, PKF revealed that a former owner and one of the largest creditors to the club, Balaram Chainrai is considered the preferred bidder.

The Championship club entered administration for the second time in two years on 17 February, with PKF partners Trevor Birch, Ian Gould and Bryan Jackson appointed.

Chainrai's proposed bid through his company Portpin will see the club exit administration in the next six weeks.

All clubs in both the Premier League and Championship must exit administration via a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA). A CVA needs 75% or more of creditors by value of debt to approve the deal. About 87% of Port Vale creditors approved the proposed CVA.

PKF hopes to send the details of the proposals to creditors later this week with a vote expected to take place in early June.

Birch said: PKF has not received bids from any other potential buyers and we do not
expect any new bidders to emerge before the club runs out of money.

"The Supporters Trust is working hard to make a proposal but as yet is not in a funded position to make a bid. We.ve made it clear from the start that a new owner would need to demonstrate that it can not only fund a CVA that is acceptable to creditors but also cover the clubs ongoing operating losses.

"Only Portpin has been able to give us the necessary assurances that the funding will be in place. This is important because at some stage it will have to give the Football League those assurances too."

In 2010 Portsmouth entered administration as a Premiership club with UHY Hacker Young partners Andrew Andronikou, Peter Kubik and Michael Kiely appointed administrators. In March 2011 Geoff Carton-Kelly and David Hudson, partners at Baker Tilly, were appointed liquidators.