AFC Telford future: Two potential foreign investors walk away in share scheme disappointment

New Bucks Head officials released a statement this morning to give details of a share plan launched to change the direction of how the club is run.

Having previously been owned by supporters, the club held a vote in November to change their ownership model to allow external investment.

That saw 5,000 lots of £100 shares go on sale that could be purchased by interested individuals and businesses, however no one person or organisation could purchase more than 20 per cent of the club.

And that has prevented interest from foreign investors with the club confirming two parties were put off by the fact they couldn't not purchase a larger stake in the club.

Telford statement in full:

The Board of directors of the football club met on Tuesday 13th December to consider the applications received from supporters for the club's proposed share issue.

Firstly, the board of the football club want to express their extreme thanks to those supporters who have invested money and purchased shares in the football club. The club will be confirming the issue of shares directly with those supporters who purchased shares and issuing share certificates to those shareholders. These share certificates will be issued prior to Christmas. In total 139 supporters have purchased shares.

All share applications were accepted. A number of supporters took up the instalment scheme to purchase shares and those share certificates will be issued on receipt of the final instalment by those shareholders.

The percentage uptake of the share offer was 32%, no individual shareholder has taken the 20% maximum of the authorised share capital. The board are disappointed that the share offer was only at this level and will be reviewing its actions in the new year. The share offer closing date has not been extended.

The board were in lengthy discussions with two substantial investors up to the closing date for the share offer. Both of those investors are based overseas, but with an upbringing and background from Telford. The club were satisfied that both of those parties wanted to invest in the club for the benefit of the football club.

One of those investors withdrew because the club had put in a maximum shareholding of 20% of the authorised share capital, the second party was concerned about being a major but minority shareholder.

The board of the club considered that when the original proposal for the share offer was put to the Supporters Trust to sell its shares, that if the 20% ownership clause had not been included in that proposal, that it was unlikely that the Trust members would approve the sale of the old shares back to the football club and the issue of new shares.

The Board of the football club will be issuing to the shareholders of the football club, accounts for the club's last year end to 31st May 2016 during the early part of 2017 and will also be calling an AGM of shareholders prior to the end of February 2017.

These accounts will also be issued to those that were trust members as at 24th October 2016. For this reason, the football club's accounts will not be issued at the Trust AGM on the 15th December and the football club are not part of this Trust AGM.

The football club board do however advise that for the year to 31st May 2016 the football club did incur a small five figure loss (£13,065). The club board will be considering whether to put a motion to our shareholders to dispense with the 20% cap on individual shareholdings.

The board of the football club still consider that there is a requirement and need to get the share offer fully subscribed to the authorised share capital of £500,000 and will be working to succeed with this objective early in the new year. The objective to raise £500,000 remains as advised in October this year and that is

- Ensure that the medium-term finance of the club is secure

- Look to invest in schemes to generate revenue outside of football to invest in the football club.

- We are currently looking to extend the Learning Centre; this will be done through grant assisted funding but we need some initial capital to start such projects off.

- Invest in a club staff structure to generate additional commercial and other income

- Develop a short, medium and long term plan to get AFC Telford United back into the National League and sustain football at that level and beyond.

- Look to work more closely with both local businesses and national/international businesses who have a presence in Telford

A statement released from the club said: "The board were in lengthy discussions with two substantial investors up to the closing date for the share offer.

"Both of those investors are based overseas, but with an upbringing and background from Telford.

"The club were satisfied that both of those parties wanted to invest in the club for the benefit of the football club.

"One of those investors withdrew because the club had put in a maximum shareholding of 20 per cent of the authorised share capital, the second party was concerned about being a major but minority shareholder.

"The board of the club considered that when the original proposal for the share offer was put to the Supporters Trust to sell its shares, that if the 20 per cent ownership clause had not been included in that proposal, that it was unlikely that the Trust members would approve the sale of the old shares back to the football club and the issue of new shares."

The statement confirmed that 32 per cent of shares in the scheme have been sold. However, that leaves the Bucks someway short of their £500,000 target which could have been raised after 500 lots of £100 shares went on sale.