SHAREHOLDERS of West Bromwich Albion have protested to the Financial Conduct Authority and Premier League about the “injustice” created by the manner of the sale of 88% of the football club to Chinese investor Guochuan Lai.
Mr Lai bought out former owner Jeremy Peace in a deal that was completed in June but only announced last week. The deal value has not been disclosed but it was reported to have been around £200m.
Shareholders for Albion, a membership group representing around 180 of the 433 shareholders who hold the remaining 12%, has said there has been no consideration of “the needs and protection of minority interests”.
In a letter to the Premier League club’s new chairman, John Williams, that has also been sent to the financial regulator and the league’s governing body, the group has expressed its concerns that the minority shareholders will not be able “to share in that success” of having invested in a company whose value has increased.
Neil Reynolds, chairman of Shareholders for Albion, wrote: “By his series of actions, in first taking the company private, then transferring all his shares in West Bromwich Albion Group Limited to a new company West Bromwich Albion Holdings Limited and then selling that company, Mr Peace and the prospective new owner provide no possibility for other shareholders in West Bromwich Albion Group Limited to sell their shares or benefit in the success of the company.
“I am not questioning the legality of the arrangements – I am sure that everything that has been done and is planned is perfectly legal – but surely this cannot be right that other shareholders, who have invested and helped to fund the success to a significant degree over many years, have been denied the opportunity to gain some benefit in return?”
The group is seeking discussions with Mr Williams and the club, and for him to convey to the club’s new owner “the strength of feeling of the other shareholders”.
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