Munto Finance reveal plans for the futureMunto Finance reveal plans for the future

Munto Finance, the Middle Eastern consortium bidding to buy Notts County, today issued a statement that outlines their plans for the future.

The statement reads …

Munto Finance are the special purpose acquisition company of a Middle East backed investment fund based in Switzerland. The advisers to Munto on the transaction are UK based Merchant Bank, First London Group plc.

Over the next few years Munto will invest in the underlying fabric and infrastructure of the club, as well as making funds available to improve the playing and coaching staff and for nurturing home grown talent. Investment in an improved youth programme and further integration within the community are just as important to Munto as success on the park.

To achieve this, Munto intend to invest in Notts County in a structured and staged way, to achieve their initial objective of making the club an established Championship side within four to five years. They have an overall commitment to the community and fans alike - ensuring a solid and long future to enable the club to steadily rise through the tables, eventually depending upon their own resources.
Notts County were identified by the investor group as an attractive club to invest in, due to the club’s heritage and proud history, particularly given their unique place in footballing history, as the oldest Football League club in the world. The investors believe that this is an ideal time to invest, given the established and loyal fan base, the approaching 150th anniversary in 2012, and a Championship-quality stadium already in place.

Munto are intent on establishing a club that provides first class training facilities for the players, first rate entertainment for the fans and best in class support as the local heart and soul for the community.

Munto will invest in the stadium to create a venue that is family centric, 365 days of the year and will entail top class restaurants, modern and convivial dining experiences, crèche facilities, high quality conference and banqueting, to compliment the investment in players, state of the art training facilities and long term success.

There are no plans to change the current management and coaching staff and the investors will be giving Ian McParland and his team their full support. Alongside the commitment to infrastructure the investors will, of course, work closely with the coaching staff to ensure the correct level of investment is available for the playing and coaching staff too.
The investment programme is especially tailored to create long-term stability that only a robust infrastructure can deliver, backed by bank guarantees and deployment commitments. The investment programme, both on and off the park, will ensure the financial stability, community involvement and success of Notts County.
The investment group has made clear its intention to develop Notts County as an integral member of the community, and will work closely with Nottingham City Council, Nottinghamshire County Council, local schools, hospitals and local sport to integrate the club more fully into the lifeblood of the community within Nottingham and surrounding areas.
In line with Munto's undertaking to develop the club Peter Trembling and Peter Willett have joined the club board with immediate effect. Should the takeover be approved, Peter Trembling will take over the day-to-day running of the club.

He has extensive football and business experience having worked in and around the game for the last 15 years culminating in his most recent role as Head of Commercial at Everton FC. He was also previously vice-President and Head of Sport at MBNA International Bank before founding his own successful sports affinity business, which operated globally from a Nottingham base.

Furthermore he is a Nottingham boy, where he lives and his children go to school.
Peter Willett brings a wealth of experience to the board and his unrivalled knowledge of major development and entertainment infrastructure will play a pivotal role in the development of the stadium and Munto’s plans to create an exciting matchday and non-matchday Meadow Lane experience.

Peter acts as client representative for the Althani Family and over his impressive career has overseen some of the world's leading projects from world famous Burj al Arab 7 star hotel and Dubai International Airport to the creation of Milton Keynes and the refurbishment of Lords.

The Munto team more generally has a wealth of contacts and experience in football and among blue chip corporates; which they will bring into play.

Munto is proud to be associated with such an esteemed and long-established club.

Whilst welcoming this post, I am still concerned that we do not repeat the debacle of the past ownership that led us once into administration.
It would be more transparent if we knew who the underlying beneficial owners of the Investment Fund are ( is it the Al Thani family)? Is the underlying funding guaranteed ( how much:0is it entirely loan finance or an equity injection as well, and all on what terms) and are they in it for the serious long term - what happens at exit in x years time?

I welcome the notion of a real improvement of off-field activities but want to be assured that forecasts have not been built upon unrealistic attendance levels - providing such revenue generation - where we have fallen down before.