New Zealand businessman Victor Cattermole insists he is still interested in buying Premier League strugglers Portsmouth.
Pompey suitor believes club is still an attractive proposition
New Zealand businessman Victor Cattermole insists he is still interested in buying Premier League strugglers Portsmouth.
Cattermole, along with his Endeavor Plan consortium, was one of a number of parties linked with a move to buy the club before it was placed into administration last week.
The Fratton Park outfit were forced to take the step on Friday after they were unable to agree a deal with any of four interested parties.
As a result, Pompey are set to be handed a nine-point deduction to put another significant dent in their bid to avoid relegation from the Premier League.
Despite the gloomy picture surrounding the cash-strapped club, Cattermole claims he is still keen on acquiring the Fratton Park outfit.
"We are still interested in buying Portsmouth," he told
Sky Sports News.
"We still have to carry out due diligence and see what is owed, what is expected to be paid for it and what the value is going to be once the whole issue of relegation and the nine-point issue is sorted out."
Cattermole believes his consortium are well-placed to buy the club and he feels the problems at Portsmouth are not as bad as has been suggested.
Asked about his chance of buying Porsmouth, Cattermole said: "I think quite good, because I really don't think the situation is too bad as maybe people might think.
"Once we have worked through the £50million of previous owners' liabilities and we see if they are sustainable or not, because I have my own opinion on that, then we are probably dealing with quite an affordable business, I think."
Funds
Cattermole insists his consortium had the funds available to buy the club, but conceded administraion was inevitable.
"We provided evidence of an offer for a bank facility of 200million euros last Tuesday to Peter Storrie," added Cattermole.
"That was obviously not disclosed to any of the media.
"We also wrote to them advising that we were strongly opposed to administration but they had a path they were on and it didn't matter what we said, that wasn't going to change.
"We wouldn't have bought it - administration was unfortunately inevitable because we couldn't have carried out due diligence and negotiated prior to the liquidation hearing (which was scheduled for Monday morning).
"Sadly, administration was the only option and the revenue department, as late as Friday morning, were adamant that there was nothing that could be negotiated with anyone that would stop them taking their action.
"So unfortunately, because of that, administration was really the only option to save the club."
Portsmouth promoted from Championship 2010/11 6/1
