On the eve of Everton’s takeover by The Friedkin Group, I have taken a look at the potential impacts to the increasingly marginalized minority shareholders.
The Everton Football Club Company Limited is a private limited company. It is owned by the holders of the 135,000 ordinary shares issued by the company. In total, there are 2,114 holders of the ordinary shares.
The issue of new shares (in respect of capitalising the £450M of shareholder loans currently owed by the club) … requires the approval of The Friedkin Group after their acquisition.
The issue of new shares to cover the capitalisation of the shareholder loans … would see the minority holdings be heavily diluted to less than 0.5% perhaps as low as 0.25%.
At what point, particularly in the context of no statutory requirement to hold general meetings, does the notion of individual shareholdings become just a quaint (but no doubt important to many existing shareholders) nod to the past?