Romanov wards off Icelandic takeover bid

HEARTS have laughed off a report in Iceland that a group of Scottish businessmen and minority Hearts shareholders are courting Icelandic investors with a view to putting together a takeover bid for the club.

The consortium is reported to have sought guidance of Iceland's honorary consul in Edinburgh, Cameron Buchanan, who is also said to be interested in the possibility of investing in the club and joining the board of directors. The investment, according to reports could be as much as 6 billion krona (just under £45 million).
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A report on Iceland's Channel 2 at the weekend linked Icelandic billionaire Thor Björgólfsson to the bid. Björgólfsson, the 39-year-old son of Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson, who stands behind the recent Icelandic takeover of West Ham, was last year ranked 350th in the Forbes World Rich List, and has been described as Iceland's first billionaire with a net wealth estimated at over £1.5billion.

The US-educated Björgólfsson made his first pile in Russia, through a successful brewery venture, Bravo, in the 1990s, which he later sold to Heineken for around US$400 million. He is now based in London.

However, other reports coming out of Iceland indicate that a more familiar name is at the heart of the rumoured takeover bid - that of Edinburgh businessman Pat Munro, who together with business associate Fred Wood first made an unsuccessful attempt to present themselves as an alternative to Romanov back in 2005, when they proposed a purchase and leaseback deal for Tynecastle. They were linked once more to a bid for Hearts in November 2006.

Last night Munro claimed that a proposal involving both Icelandic and Middle Eastern investors was currently being prepared. Munro is expected to put out a statement detailing his intentions today.

However, a source close to Vladimir Romanov last night rejected any chance of a takeover. "Mr Romanov would be more interested if the bid was from Marilyn Monroe and not Pat Munro," said the source. "He has no intention of selling Hearts and is not interested in any bids."

• The Scottish Premierleague and the Scottish Football Association have said that there is nothing they can do to prevent Hearts from signing what is now more than an entire team on loan.

Hearts have taken 13 players from Kaunas, the Lithuanian club of Hearts owner Vladimir Romanov, on "temporary transfers". A registration loophole allows the club to exceed the limit of having four temporary transfers at one time, because cross-border loan deals require an International Transfer Certificate - which exempts the deals from the quota. "This is an area where we are bound by FIFA legislation," said SPL secretary Iain Blair.

Taken from the Scotsman