Share issue will help AFC Wimbledon raise funds needed for Plough Lane stadium build
AFC Wimbledon chief executive Erik Samuelson has revealed that part of the funding for the new stadium will come from a share issue.
The Dons are set to move back to Plough Lane for the start of the 2020-21 campaign.
Samuelson, writing in the matchday programme, said: “One of the important elements of financing our new stadium is a proposed crowdfunding.
“In our case, crowdfunding has come to mean an issue of shares in AFCW PLC, which owns the club and owns The Wider Interests of Football Limited, the company that will own the new stadium.
“We have issued shares before, back in 2003, when we raised a substantial sum towards the cost of buying our current home.
“What would be different about a share issue this time? Well, first of all, this time investors would be buying shares in an established company, with a good track record both on and off the pitch.
“Second, the underlying value of shares in an EFL club with a new stadium in the offing is also much higher than for a non-league club that has been in existence for only a year and is in a league five levels below League Two.
“We think the proposition is far more attractive to third parties than it was 16 years ago, at the time of the previous share issue.
“In order to raise a substantial sum of money, we need to look outside the fanbase – and we will be actively doing so.
“Obviously there needs to be safeguards to ensure that the club remains in the ownership of the fans. We were very aware of this question in 2003, when we first issued shares in the PLC, so we set up the company in such a way that the Dons Trust would retain 75 per cent plus one of the votes in the PLC. This percentage is very important.
“If any one shareholder or a group of shareholders commands 25 per cent or more of the votes, then they can stop important resolutions from being passed.
“After the first share issue, the Dons Trust owned comfortably over 75 per cent of the votes, and in subsequent years that proportion has crept up to well over 90 per cent.
“With any new share issue, there will be the same proviso that the Trust’s shareholding in the PLC must remain above 75 per cent.
“Some years ago the Dons Trust board anticipated this sort of proposal and created a form of protection which is designed to prevent the club or stadium from being sold off without due consideration and a very thorough democratic process.”
Everyone at the South London Press thanks you for your continued support.
Former Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick has encouraged everyone in the country who can afford to do so to buy a newspaper, and told the Downing Street press briefing:
“A FREE COUNTRY NEEDS A FREE PRESS, AND THE NEWSPAPERS OF OUR COUNTRY ARE UNDER SIGNIFICANT FINANCIAL PRESSURE”
If you can afford to do so, we would be so grateful if you can make a donation which will allow us to continue to bring stories to you, both in print and online. Or please make cheques payable to “MSI Media Limited” and send by post to South London Press, Unit 112, 160 Bromley Road, Catford, London SE6 2NZ
