In the last part Sports Direct actually were the lettors of the building and Ideal World lived in it. As I understand it we owed them some amount of money a few months before the collapse, and as we could not pay they accepted shares in the company which took them to 49% ownership.At the time IW2 was in trouble towards the end, Sports Direct took interests/loans guarantees from IW2 owners assets/business.
Do we know if Sports Direct made money, a loss, or got their cash back?
I may be misunderstanding, but TJC did not buy out IW2, only the assets they wanted from the administrator, so no deal direct with Sports Direct.
Only what the administrator would have given Sports Direct as a prime creditor on the initial remaining IW2 assets after it went into administration, or after TJC purchased some assets, some or all of the cash from that purchase of assets may have gone to Sports Direct's outstanding lien (loan charge)?
I don't fully understand the business arrangements but they did have significant interest - I suspect they were fooled (unintentionally, I might add) into believing they would recoup their investment. The popular staff opinion was that Hamish was keen to make his money back by selling to Frasers group, but they weren't that interested. As we now now, Lonsdale tracksuits don't please the viewing masses...
In terms of the financials my understanding now is that there won't be any money left for anyone to receive a return once debts have been taken into consideration so it's not that likely that SD will have made a success of it. However they are not stupid and I'm sure have their backs covered, not that it would have been a massive bet for them.
If you believe the local press the issues behind finding a new tenant for the building stem from the massive amount of car parking space that is at the front of the building which is not suitable to use for anything other than a car park according to planning regulations. That coupled with the fact that there are two TV Studios that nobody needs, makes the majority of the building a big waste of money. I believe the owners are seeking a change to these regulations which would mean they can redevelop the site with less parking.