Albion Shares for Sale. £1 each.

[Creaky]

The shares are worthless, so for DK to sell them for a pound each is a bit naughty.

If, however, he said that all the money raised from the sale of the shares was going to be given to a worthwhile cause, then it would be a nice way of raising money for a charity.

Not sure that is a valid statement EP

The value of ANY share in ANY company is determined by the price someone is willing to pay for them - if anything I suspect they are undervalued at £1 each, their 'face' value.

I imagine if he had offered his shareholding to TB he may well have been offered more than £1M

 

[strings]

I would love a £20 stake in the Albion. Imagine that hanging on my wall!

 

[Monkey Man]

Dick clearly has issues with Tony Bloom and for all I know he may be entitled to feel hard done by. It almost always happens when people have to hand over the reins to a successor. However gracious you may try to be, there is often a simmering bitterness and resentment that's hard to hide.

But the "conversation" that the book and now this slightly odd share offer seems to have started is leading some excitable fans to buy into the idea that Bloom is some kind of dictator whose power is a danger to the club's future. This being the dictator who paid for the ground out of his own money, attracted Poyet and then Garcia to the club, oversaw our best league position in a generation and sits with fans on the train. The dictator who's a lifelong fan, whose family have been involved with the Albion for years, and who shows no sign of wanting a return on his investment other than seeing the club he loves playing at the highest level.

We're not dealing with Vincent Tan here, or the Venky family, or the nutcase who owns Hull City Tigers. Or Bill Archer.

 

[Not Andy Naylor]

Well Dicks putting the cats amongst the pigeons! Whilst on the face of it it does put some power to tye fans but at the end of the day its not. I would suggest that all fans who take up the ooffer that a representative is 'elected'. I cant help but think of someone like Paul Samrah. The reality is that to have even 10,000 fans turn up for an EGM would be national news. Id say this is good for us but it needs a single voice to represent 'us'.

Good luck finding a single person who would represent even the people on one page of an NSC thread.

 

[Not Andy Naylor]

Dick clearly has issues with Tony Bloom and for all I know he may be entitled to feel hard done by. It almost always happens when people have to hand over the reins to a successor. However gracious you may try to be, there is often a simmering bitterness and resentment that's hard to hide.

But the "conversation" that the book and now this slightly odd share offer seems to have started is leading some excitable fans to buy into the idea that Bloom is some kind of dictator whose power is a danger to the club's future. This being the dictator who paid for the ground out of his own money, attracted Poyet and then Garcia to the club, oversaw our best league position in a generation and sits with fans on the train. The dictator who's a lifelong fan, whose family have been involved with the Albion for years, and who shows no sign of wanting a return on his investment other than seeing the club he loves playing at the highest level.

We're not dealing with Vincent Tan here, or the Venky family, or the nutcase who owns Hull City Tigers. Or Bill Archer.

I believe Dick says exactly that in the book at one point.

 

[Giraffe]

The shares are worthless, so for DK to sell them for a pound each is a bit naughty.

If, however, he said that all the money raised from the sale of the shares was going to be given to a worthwhile cause, then it would be a nice way of raising money for a charity.

Indeed.

I think DK is playing an excellent game here. It really does smack of a man desperately trying to get back some of the limelight.

That said I am pretty sure he will be able to sell the shares at that price.

The bit that really astounds me is that he is allowed to do this. Most business shareholder agreements say that if you are selling your shares they must first be offered to the other shareholders. Maybe he has already done this, maybe not?

Perhaps this will be like the colouring competion that DK announced for art at the AMEX, that was quickly shelved as they didn't want kids scrawls all over their nice new stadium.

What is for sure though is that it will be increased admin for someone at the club.

 

[rool]

Assuming it is a private limited company, because I have no idea otherwise, is it not the case that the other shareholders have to agree with any new shareholders coming on board in some kind of resolution?

 

[Papa Lazarou]

Dick clearly has issues with Tony Bloom and for all I know he may be entitled to feel hard done by. It almost always happens when people have to hand over the reins to a successor. However gracious you may try to be, there is often a simmering bitterness and resentment that's hard to hide.

But the "conversation" that the book and now this slightly odd share offer seems to have started is leading some excitable fans to buy into the idea that Bloom is some kind of dictator whose power is a danger to the club's future. This being the dictator who paid for the ground out of his own money, attracted Poyet and then Garcia to the club, oversaw our best league position in a generation and sits with fans on the train. The dictator who's a lifelong fan, whose family have been involved with the Albion for years, and who shows no sign of wanting a return on his investment other than seeing the club he loves playing at the highest level.

We're not dealing with Vincent Tan here, or the Venky family, or the nutcase who owns Hull City Tigers. Or Bill Archer.

Agreed. Just imagine if fans were at some point in the future responsible for driving Tony Bloom out of the club.

 

[El Presidente]

Not sure that is a valid statement EP

The value of ANY share in ANY company is determined by the price someone is willing to pay for them - if anything I suspect they are undervalued at £1 each, their 'face' value.

I imagine if he had offered his shareholding to TB he may well have been offered more than £1M

OK, I'll rephrase it.

The shares are worthless to anyone who values them using a traditional pricing model.

They may have an emotional value if you want to hang a share certificate on your wall, but nothing else.

TB would be mad giving DK a million for his shareholding, unless he just wants to get rid of the hassle factor, there is no investment value given that TB already has 90%+, and the club, as a financial investment, rather than a labour of love, is bankrupt.

 

[Arthur]

I'm struggling to see it as a two-fingered salute to TB. If it is, it's a pretty feeble behind-your-back / under-the-table / with fingers-crossed salutes, because in the great scheme of things, it doesn't amount to much.

You're right in the other sense, it is a marketing wheeze, but that's Dick for you.

Oh come off it. It doesn't amount to much in the grand scale of things other than a logistical headache for the club. Which to me just seems like a two fingered salute as DK walks away from the club never to be heard of again (after he's milked every last bit of cash out of his book).

Whether or not some see offering the shares as a stunt or not, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, the idea of fans owning shares is far from being a silly idea.

So if the only shares available are DK's that means that no more than 10% will be available but even that small number, spread over a wide ownership will provide a greater level of openness in the clubs management.

Changes to the constitution will have to be notified and voted on, (TB owns more than 75% of the equity so they would pass but at least the changes would be public) - the same would apply to director appointments and salaries - groups of 100 or more shareholders each owning more than £100 of shares could call directors to a shareholders meeting to answer questions - any new share offerings would have to be offered to existing shareholders at the same time in the same proportion - this obviously wasn't a viable option for the small number of existing shareholders when the club released the additional millions of shares bought by TB which increased his shareholding above the magic 75%, it may have been if there had been thousands of small shareholders.

Even a small proportion of the shares like those apparently on offer would help protect the club - if investing in BHAFC is good enough for TB then it's good enough for me.

Never said it was silly. Far from it. I think it is very clever from DK. Snidey but very clever.

 

[Giraffe]

Dick really is creating an interesting dilemma here though. You have to hand it to the man, for shit stirring this is priceless. I wonder if the club knew in advance, given they were not allowed to see the book ahead of it's release.

 

[backson]

I'm not sure of the obligation of Limiteds to communicate/report to all shareholders, but DK could be delivering the ultimate "**** you" to the club here, by passing on the administrative burden to communicate regularly to (tens of) thousands of shareholders for ever more.

Who wouldn't want to own a small slice of the Albion?

By "administrative burden", the implication is "increased costs to the club".

So, none of the money is going to the club, but the club might have to spend more money. That's nice.

 

[El Presidente]

It's a long time since I taught company law, but I vaguely remember that the rule in terms of sending out sets of financial statements is that the company can elect to not physically send them out if

1: 90% of shareholders request that they are not sent out, however, if the company is majority controlled then at least half of the remaining shareholders request that they are sent out. It could be that email constitutes a distribution though.

I know the conspiracy theorists will claim that owning shares allows them to quiz the board at the AGM, but you can do this far easier by attending a fans forum, or even emailing Paul Barber, who has a habit of replying at 11pm at night!

 

[jgmcdee]

Assuming it is a private limited company, because I have no idea otherwise, is it not the case that the other shareholders have to agree with any new shareholders coming on board in some kind of resolution?

There will be a shareholders' agreement, which details (amongst other things) how the shares may be transferred.

This is different from issuing new shares, which would have to be agreed by some combination of the existing shareholders and board of directors.

But now that it's been raised, I think that having the ability to purchase shares from BHAFC itself is a really cool idea. They can easily create a class of share which is either non-voting or only has voting kick in at a certain level (e.g. 10,000 shares) so that those people who want to own a single share in the Albion can do so without the club having to go to the hassle of inviting every fan to the AGM.

The only problem would be there would need to be an administrative fee for issuing the share certificate to avoid it becoming an expense to the club, which would cause everyone to moan about it even more.

 

[rool]

You don't think?.....could it? naahhh

 

[Gazwag]

I'm not sure of the obligation of Limiteds to communicate/report to all shareholders, but DK could be delivering the ultimate "**** you" to the club here, by passing on the administrative burden to communicate regularly to (tens of) thousands of shareholders for ever more.

Who wouldn't want to own a small slice of the Albion?

Will it really make that much more work, all the club needs to maintain is an email address of the shareholders and automatically send out emails with notice of meetings and the annual accounts.

 

[Giraffe]

Will it really make that much more work, all the club needs to maintain is an email address of the shareholders and automatically send out emails with notice of meetings and the annual accounts.

Whichever way you look at it, it is a pain for the club. I suspect they weren't even consulted. I think Dick Knight is playing a game. I wouldnt be surprised if his shareholders agreement means he has to offer the shares to the current shareholders first. Assuming he has done so, then fine. But what if he hasn't and now they say they want to buy them. He can then make a big play out fo the fact that the club is not letting fans buy the shares. It's a great move if you want to cause trouble for whatever reason.

 

[Goldstone1976]

From what I can see, for Holdings, the Articles were last amended in July 2002; for the Football Club, they were last amended in Feb 1996, both according to Companies House. Unless I've missed a filing, that means that TB hasn't sought to change the Articles since his appointment, which I find somewhat surprising.

Given how long ago the Articles of both companies were amended (btw, anyone know which company's shares DK is apparently offering to sell?), who knows what pre-emption rights exist. I could easily check, but, tbh, I can't be bothered.

If the Articles do have pre-emption clauses that prevent DK selling his shares to people other than existing shareholders, I would anticipate that the club would make a statement at some point making potential new shareholders aware that there may be some considerable problem in them getting their hands on shares, even if they've paid money. If there aren't any pre-emption clauses in the Articles, then DK can sell his shares (providing they are fully paid-up, which I assume they are) to anyone he wants.

El Presidente is correct to say that, at this point, the shares are technically financially worthless. Liabilities far outstrip assets, and the business is loss-making, making it impossible to pay a dividend and also meaning that further dilution is inevitable.

I have no clue what DK's motives are, but if this does proceed there will be an additional administrative burden on the club, and therefore cost. The ability to influence any decision at the club, even if you owned all of DK's shares is precisely zero.

Of course, many might simply want to say that they are a shareholder in the club - fair enough, but do be aware that the opportunity to make money or have any say in decisions is non-existant, or as close to as makes no difference.

 

[Oscar]

The Argus article seems to be lacking a response to all this from the club. I can only assume this is being lined up as a follow up article as this all seems rather one-sided and confusing so far.

Those who do buy one of Dick's shares will probably do so for the novelty factor and the chance to have something stuck on the wall proclaiming what a super-fan they are.

The bottom line is Dick is not only an Albion legend but a legend in the marketing world. And what he has done here is a very clever piece of marketing for his book.

 

[Monkey Man]

The bottom line is Dick is not only an Albion legend but a legend in the marketing world. And what he has done here is a very clever piece of marketing for his book.

And just when we thought that the Albion had become an ego-free zone!