Albion have won a High Court victory over chairman Jeremy Peace’s controversial shares plan.
The Baggies chairman will now push ahead with his share consolidation scheme next Friday.
An application by a group of small shareholders for an interim injunction stopping the consolidation was rejected by Mr Justice Patten at the High Court this afternoon.
It followed a day-and-a-half of arguments over the plan, which will see 10 existing shares consolidated into one new share.
A club statement read: “Albion are pleased to confirm that the application for an injunction to prevent the club’s share consolidation plan was defeated in the High Court.
“The share consolidation was approved at the club’s annual general meeting on November 6 and will now take effect on November 28.
“As the club announced last week, shareholders have until 3pm today to exercise their various options.”
Shareholders are unhappy at the scheme, which will force those with fewer than 10 shares to ‘round up’ their shareholding at a cost of up to £720 or be forced to sell their stake in a tender process.
Today at 3pm was the deadline for shareholders to apply for extra shares to round up their stake, with the consolidation officially due to take place next Friday.
A successful application for an injunction would have put the process on hold pending a full court case, which could have taken several months to organise.
Shareholders who choose not to ‘round up’ their stake to multiples of 10 will have their odd shares put into the tender process with other shareholders invited to bid for them.
But Mr Peace will buy any left over shares at £80, leading to accusations from the small shareholders that he is attempting to increase the size of his majority shareholding ‘on the cheap’.
They also accuse him of disenfranchising small shareholders.
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