By Stefan Morkis and Ian Roache

DUNDEE BUSINESSMEN and majority shareholders of Dundee FC Peter and Jimmy Marr endured a black Friday yesterday after six companies they own went into receivership.

The firms, all trading from Belsize House in Broughty Ferry, include P&J Taverns, the pub chain that owns the brothers’ majority shareholding in the Dens Road club.

This could spell the end of the Marrs’ involvement with the club they took over after buying a 73% stake in it in 1997.

The brothers’ shares are now effectively in the control of the bank and although the receivers, Glasgow-based firm Krolls, have said that the club exists as an entirely separate company and will not be affected by P&J going into receivership, Peter Marr last night said he was unsure of what the implications will be for his relationship with the Dark Blues.

“At the moment I am still a director but the receivers control the shares and ultimately that means the bank,” he said.

Asked if this could mean the end of his involvement with Dundee, Mr Marr replied, “I don’t have a clue.”

The five other companies who have been put in receivership are pub and nightclub operators Call-A-Keg and Marbelles Ltd and property firms Demryan, Justice Homes and Camperdown Construction.

Each company is understood to have been in the red.

However, Mr Marr added that he believed there would be little impact on jobs in any of the pubs and nightclubs that they hope will now be sold as going concerns.

More immediately, work on new town houses being built on Perth Road by Camperdown Construction has been halted.

The brothers’ other firms, such as the Commercial Pub Co, which owns Deacon Brodies and several pubs in Aberdeen, including the Prince of Wales, are unaffected.

Yesterday Peter Marr said that the portfolio of pubs and nightclubs owned by the affected companies, such as the Charleston Bar and Deja Vu in Dundee, would not be forced to close and that he hoped they could all be sold as going concerns.

Peter Marr continued, “There shouldn’t be any job losses in the pubs. They are all leased out or have already closed and the nightclubs will be operating as normal.”

“On the construction side of things there’s probably only going to be five jobs so it is not a huge amount. It is up to the receivers to find somebody who will complete the work now and once that job (on Perth Road) is finished, the jobs would have gone then too.”

He also did not want to comment on the development of the financial problems that led to the six companies going into receivership yesterday, but earlier admitted that the difficulties originated from the financial deals they made to save Dundee FC when the club went into administration in November 2003.

The brothers provided guarantees worth millions of pounds to keep the club alive and this placed an increased burden on their other businesses. Records at Companies House show that between them the six firms owed creditors millions of pounds—although some of the debts are between the firms themselves.

Fraser Gray and David Whitehouse, partners at Kroll’s corporate advisory and restructuring group, were appointed receivers to P&J Taverns Ltd yesterday. They are reviewing options for the business and could provide no further details at this stage. However, a spokesman said, “The receivership of P&J Taverns does not affect Dundee Football Club as it is an entirely separate legal entity.”

Club officials were also adamant yesterday’s news did not threaten the future of Dundee FC.

George Knight, the director representing fans’ organisation Dee4Life, said the bank has said the statement concerning the financial restructuring referred to in the media is still valid.

It was claimed in the earlier release “there is commitment and goodwill from both sides to finalise matters in the shortest possible time frame” and that “no insurmountable barriers are foreseen by either party.”