Just 32% of the shares available have been purchased in the recent AFC Telford United share offer.
Two potential investors in the club are said to have been put off that the maximum shareholding any individual can have is just 20%.
Telford are 16th in National League North.
The club had been owned by its supporters but a recent vote will allow external investment.
Reports suggested that the club needed £25,000 both in November and December to 'stabilish the club's finances'.
This from Telford FC:
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.