Share Issue: St Johnstone FC


O'Rourke
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I don't think it's a case of making financial sense but just having that share certificate on your wall.

Mr Brown has said he'd sell our club to the "right buyer". Why not "sell" it to its supporters?

Just a thought, but something maybe worth a thought to raise money for Saints?

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And it would dilute the power of the board significantly as we would all have the right to vote onstrategic matters going forward. Would be nice if we could though, I'd certainly buy shares and the positives would by far outweigh the negatives.

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GB has the vast majority of the shares so owning shares wouldgive you no influence on how the club is run. Also no share dividend has ever been paid out so there's no financial gains to be made :) However as everyone's said it's nice just to own a share in your club (on paper at least).

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GB has the vast majority of the shares so owning shares wouldgive you no influence on how the club is run. Also no share dividend has ever been paid out so there's no financial gains to be made :) However as everyone's said it's nice just to own a share in your club (on paper at least).

Exactly. I wouldn't want in any way to dilute Geoff Brown's power but I reckon there's potentially a cool million to be made for the club.

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I'm fairly clueless when it comes to these sorts of things, but are there not drawbacks to having lots of different shareholders in a limited company? They'd have to invite us all to the AGM for a start.

In real terms not really - Celtic, Rangers, Hearts , Hibs, and even Forfar have a whole host of people owning very small holdings, usually because they had them in the family for a long time, or their pal the director allowed them to get a couple. I think I am right that Prestonpans HMFC supporters are still the second largest shareholders in the club.

OK, the admin costs go up a bit, but in reality all it means is that you print 100 copies of the annual accounts rather than 20, and you have to sent out some more correspondence, but IT takes care of that, and it is much less than it was.

Looking forward to the AGM invite?

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In real terms not really - Celtic, Rangers, Hearts , Hibs, and even Forfar have a whole host of people owning very small holdings, usually because they had them in the family for a long time, or their pal the director allowed them to get a couple. I think I am right that Prestonpans HMFC supporters are still the second largest shareholders in the club.

OK, the admin costs go up a bit, but in reality all it means is that you print 100 copies of the annual accounts rather than 20, and you have to sent out some more correspondence, but IT takes care of that, and it is much less than it was.

Looking forward to the AGM invite?

Do you think this has potential?

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Do you think this has potential?

Free pies and beer at the AGM - absolutely!

Serious answer? Investing money in a football club through shares will increase the capital that it has to spend, and on which it can provide collateral for sustaining loans. This is, properly handled, a good thing - Celtic after Fergus McCann is the perfect example in Scottish football. I struggle to think of an English example.

The question for Saints would be whether this would raise enough money:

  1. To be worthwhile for the club.
  2. To make a difference

Bearing in mind that the current shareholders are not going to issue enough to lose control, and quite rightly, I think the first answer is a definite "Yes". Allowing supporters a way to feel a tangible part of their club, and give them a statutory way of expressing their views on the running of the club can never be wrong.

The second is more difficult. We, at the moment, do not have any huge anticipated expenditure. The stadium is built. There is no suggestion that Murray Park Perth is developed. I have not done the exact figures, but say that 500 are prepared to invest £1,000 each in shares, would that be enough to change the medium to long term future of the club, as defined as playing in the SPL more years than not?

Maybes "Aye", maybes "No", but league reconstruction to allow easier escape from the second tier might be the better answer to that.

So, "Yes", it has potential, and is the way that clubs that come from the history that we do should be moving, but don't expect it to frank a top 6 finish every year.

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  • 4 months later...

What is the current share split? I can't recall how many as a % were offered up last time to the public.

I don't think it would be a good idea at present- comments of raising 1m seem a bit far-fetched, unless Geoff sold a serious amount of shares. In future, there may be more than one investor, so to dilute the ownership too much would be a bit of a hurdle for potential investors and trying to buy back shares from supporters wouldn't happen. Keep it as it is. Saints could maybe look at a small sell-off of say 5%, or create another investment vehicle so that supporters could own 'something', but I dare say that they'd have to put a premium on it to make it worthwhile, and in reality, would they get the numbers to make it worthwhile? I doubt it.

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