Jeremy Peace bids to up Albion stake
Albion chairman Jeremy Peace has launched his bid to extend his control of the newly-promoted club.
Albion chairman Jeremy Peace has launched his bid to extend his control of the newly-promoted club.
Peace, who currently owns a controlling 56 per cent stake in the Baggies, is offering to buy out more than 760 smaller shareholders after setting up a new parent company to run the club.
The 53-year-old financier's offer is being recommended for acceptance by independent directors and values the club at £12.3million.
But shareholders are also being offered the chance to retain their stake in the new Albion company as well as receiving a cash windfall, in a move which Peace hopes will silence critics who have accused him of gaining control of the club 'on the cheap.'
The offer, detailed in a hefty document which landed on the doormat of Albion shareholders today, is initially open for 21 days although could be extended.
It gives them the chance to trade in their shares for £1,200 each, exchange a share in the current company for a share in the new one and receive £100 cash per share or a combination of both for multi-shareholders.
A fourth option will be for shareholders to do nothing but then run the risk of become marginalised as Albion's current parent company, WBA Holdings, is effectively replaced by the new WBA Group set up by Peace.
The chairman's move comes after Albion drew a blank in efforts to find a new investors by publicly declaring the club was open to offers.
But that failed to bring any serious interest and now the biggest stakeholders of the 760 who today received the offer are property developer Geoff Hale and former chairman Tony Hale.
The former's 1,000 shares means Hale could make more than £1million from selling his stock, while the ex-chairman could also sell up for about half that amount.
The vast majority of the remaining shareholders account for just five per cent of the current company's stock.
The offer document details a net investment of £34million in the playing squad and nearly £13million in facilities during Peace's eight-year reign.
The chairman will meet the first £5million of the bill in the unlikely event of a total take-up on his offe, with borrowing in place to cover the remaining £1million required to pay shareholders.
But Peace has also pledged that it will not impact on future investment in the team or the club's infrastructure.
