West Brom shareholder meeting postponed
A meeting to discuss a multi-million pound loan made by Albion to former owner Jeremy Peace has been postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Shareholders For Albion (S4A), which represents the majority of small shareholders who own 12 per cent of the club, called for the get-together in order to discuss the loan made to Peace in 2014.
In a bid to draw a line under the issue, they agreed to a meeting at the offices of their lawyers on Thursday.
That, though, has now been delayed. Peace borrowed £3.7million from Albion but that debt was transferred to Guochuan Lai when the Chinese businessman took over in 2016.
It has previously been alleged by a section of S4A that Peace used the loan from the club to his own company – WBA Holdings – to assist a bid he had made, three months earlier, to purchase shares in the club’s parent company.
Using the loan to increase his own shareholding is something Peace has always strenuously denied.
After being granted the meeting S4A proposed two resolutions. The first called for a “thorough and independent investigation” into the loan to establish whether directors used the club’s money in the proper way.
The second resolution demands the club take “all lawful and expedient steps” to ensure the loan is repaid.
Lai insists he is currently unable to repay the debt due to regulations stopping money leaving China. Club accounts state there is ‘no fixed date for repayment’ and the loan is ‘payable on demand’, meaning – in theory – whenever Albion need the money, they can ask for it.
