So what is Jeremy Peace up to now?

The question is rumbling around the dwindling number of Albion shareholders in the wake of the club chairman's latest attempt to expand his holding at The Hawthorns.

Jeremy Peace is already the decisive force at the club with a 56 per cent block.

Now he is trying to extend that, offering the 700 remaining shareholders £1,200 for each share or the chance to jump aboard the new parent company he has set up to run the Baggies by exchanging and collecting a £100-per-share sweetener for their trouble.

This latest manoeuvre has triggered a fresh wave of grumbles and conspiracy theories from a shareholding who have felt like an endangered species ever since Peace launched his move for power over the latter part of the Noughties.

There have been allegations of mysterious late night phone-calls from unidentified canvassers probing shareholders for information while refusing to identify themselves.

There are claims that Peace has done "a mini-Glazer" and used Albion money to finance his own offer, an offer which undervalues the club.

The overall suspicion remains that the Baggies chairman is stealthily acquiring the club on the cheap with a view to making a killing from a takeover.

Peace's offer values Albion at around £23m - but that includes £10m of debt and is still way below the club's market value - one look at Graham Dorrans in full flight or the impressive training ground and land tells you that.

But isn't that just smart, cold business? He is not clubbing shareholders over the head and forcing them to accept this offer.

Nevertheless, many believe, according to Neil Reynolds of the Shareholders4Albion group, that a buyer is already parked in an Asian or American lay-by waiting for Peace to complete his sweep of the shares before a deal is done.

A significant chunk of the fanbase would relish the notion of a philanthropic multi-millionaire arriving from an exotic corner of the globe to change the club's horizons.

Peace has never hidden from the fact he does not have the financial 'clout' to pursue a money-fuelled adventure and would not stand in the way of someone who could - or that he would make a tidy sum for himself if ever that individual, or consortium, turned up.

But there simply is not a buyer out there; not at the moment at any rate.

Constrained by the regulations of his offer, the chairman is not allowed to publicly comment on any issues effecting it but has been adamant that despite two years of "open to offers" messaging to the football investment community, there have been no takers.

Nothing has happened in the meantime to change that. What about those mysterious phonecalls?

"They certainly upset many of our members, both in content and tone," Reynolds reports.

"There were reports of late-night calls, people refusing to identify themselves and aggressive questioning. You must realise that a lot of the people being contacted would be elderly, single shareholders for whom these calls were clearly upsetting."

This one we can clear up. Albion employed London-based HQB, a firm which specialises in "managing shareholder communications campaigns," to canvas those Baggies stockholders — although to do so strictly following a script approved by the Takeover Panel.

When Reynolds alerted Albion about the complaints, the club contacted their financial advisers BDO to monitor further calls.

Reynolds has no real issue about the business practice employed by Peace to finance his offer. He has used a loan from Albion's bank to meet the costs - a little over £6m at maximum take-up - and will be paying himself more than £570,000 for those £100 transfer sweeteners.

This is clever - but common - business practice these days and not unethical, especially as the club confirm Peace has personally guaranteed 90 per cent of the loan from his own assets.

It's at this point that another vocal shareholder, Birmingham solicitor David Billings, thinks the chairman could be leaving himself open to wider criticism in the future.

From the outset, the party line has been that none of this expenditure will effect Albion's team strengthening, a sensitive issue in the thick of a tense close-season during which the team clearly needs key signatures to raise its survival prospects.

"I have no problem with the way Jeremy has run the accounts," said Billings, who acted as spokesman for the 'rebel' group of shareholders when they fought Peace's last share issue two years ago.

"We have had an exciting ride since 2002, no-one can deny that. He has a day-to-day control of the club already but wants to extend that to a personal fiefdom.

"He's perfectly entitled to do that. But his problems will come if we are relegated again and especially if we are relegated and do not get back up.

"Then I think the question will be 'If this man is a true supporter of Albion, why not take out a loan for £1m, £2m, £3m or whatever to help buy new players instead of more shares in a company he already runs'."

For his part, Peace is backing himself not to face that kind of flak; he believes in his running of the club and the fact he can continue to increase its value.

What shareholding will he be holding at the end of this latest move? That's still hard to tell.

The few remaining big players, led by millionaire property developer and Peace-critic Geoff Hale, have yet to show their hand, so have other significant shareholders such as his namesake Tony Hale.

In all, more than 20 per cent of the shareholding stock is still "unspoken for."

When it's over, it's over. This will be Peace's last offer in pursuit of ultimate power. He will stick rather then twist at the finish.

And most likely be holding a winning hand.

By Martin Swain