There's all sorts of stuff about what has happened with the board restructure in dozens of different threads. I sent this to a friend as a distillation of it all. There are many on here with a far better understanding of finance and business than I, but hopefully this gives a readable and penetrable summary: Barnsley FC is owned by BFC Investment Company Limited. This has a share value of £10 million and was owned by: (Approximately) Chien Lee: £3 million 30% PMG Investments: £2.5 million 25% Neerav Parekh: £2.5 million 25% Cryne Family: 20% PMG Investments has lots of individual private investors, a few of which may be Paul Conway, Lee Dickson and Grace Hung, but not necessarily and if they do own any of those shares, it’s a small minority. Conway acted as a representative of PMG Investments. There was a 4-year deal that Chien Lee and Paul Conway, as representative of PMG Investments, would run Barnsley FC on behalf of BFC Investment Company Limited. When this deal was made, they had 55%, the majority of shares, between them. 4 years have elapsed. Private Investors in PMG Investments were no longer happy with the way Paul Conway conducted his business. They individually registered their interest in BFC Investment Company Ltd and brought in Julie Ann Quay to represent them, outing Conway, Hung and Dickson as their representatives in the process. They were no longer happy with Chien Lee either, neither were the Cryne family or Nareev Parekh. Quay (representing the private investors), The Crynes and Parekh sided together, representing 70% of the shares of BFC Investment company. They voted Chien Lee (and the PMG lot) off the board of BFC and voted in Quay and Jean Cryne to the BFC board. The BFC Board is now Quay, Jean Cryne, James Cryne, Parekh and then a couple of employee directors: Khaled (CEO), and Rob Zuk (Finance director). So, we’ve got two of the Cryne family (Barnsley fans), 2 employees (one a definite Barnsley fan and another who appears to genuinely like the place), Parekh who seems to have fallen in love with Barnsley since getting involved, and an investment group who are not Barnsley fans, but could see Chien Lee and Paul Conway for the chancers they are and are obviously much happier to align themselves to Barnsley fans. Conway is gone. He’s not coming back; he has little or no financial interest in Barnsley and he’s not welcome. Chien Lee is a minority shareholder, albeit a large minority, in the parent company but he has no power whatsoever to do anything at all. And there we are. Will things improve? We don’t know, but we’re in a hell of a lot better position today than we were yesterday.
Excellent summary Jay. The only bit I would add to is the quoted part above. That might have been one factor, but I would also give some credit to the current board of directors who might have influenced this as well. I don't believe it to be as simple as the investors realising that things were going south or knowing that mistakes were being made. I think those at the club without the power to enforce change made them aware of that.
Chien Lee's shareholding falls under the New City Capital umbrella, and is nothing to do with the PMG part of the shareholding. In the register he's shown as being the direct shareholder of 29.8%, with Pacific Media Group being shown as the holder of 22.5% of the shares. Conway was the nominee for the PMG shareholding (and probably directly owns some of these shares). He controlled the votes of the other shareholders within that bloc. It's the expiry of his term as nominee, and the desire of a majority of that group of shareholders to replace him, which has enabled the change. This allows enough votes (Cryne, Parekh and part of the PMG shareholding not owned by Conway) to create a majority to remove both Conway and Lee from the board of BFC. Lee had no direct involvement with the PMG shareholding as nominee. His own stake in BFC was insufficient to prevent the vote to remove him from the board, in addition to Conway, from passing. NB: Beyond that technicality the rest of the summary is pretty good.
I believe Dickson Lee is the son of Chien and therefore aligned with NCC rather than PMG. Otherwise I think your summary is spot on.
Thank you, that's settled my mind no end, from a pinprick of light to an ever increasing glow of sunshine.
Sorry mate, but where have I said that Chien Lee is anything to do with PMG? I'm totally confused as to what you're referring to. I thought I made it clear they were separate and even gave a break down of shares showing him to be separate.
This thread sums it all up well as far as I’m concerned. Just a pity we have to wait until the 27th for the board’s statement
Looks like I mis-interpreted the line I quoted as saying both Lee and Conway were representatives of Pacific Media Group, when it's actually only referring to Conway. This is probably due to you referring to a 4-year deal applying to both of them. Apologies for the confusion, as I can see the alternative interpretation too, on re-reading it. As far as I'm aware the only deal that has expired is Conway's tenure as nominee. I don't think there was ever any tacit agreement in place for both of them to run BFC as you state. They just happened to have control of the majority of voting rights between them, so could always control the direction of the club as long as they remained aligned in their voting.
Great summary mate, that’s my understanding too, and reading it back helps clarify my own mind. The lad Lee must be looking for an exit plan. Suspect that will be linked into the litigation, which will settle and he won’t be here this time next year.
Imho...the past 24 hours have been as good as anything I've witnessed this season. As fans ...I believe most of us were desperate just to see the back of the Con-his-way and his team. For his/ their colossal mistakes and the running down of our club. Hopefully we now have a fresh canvas on which to build including the repair work required on our fan base. I have no idea if our new leaders will be successful but we are better off much better off than we were wednesday this week. I've stated before on here... I am willing to give our CEO some time and space...will he still have 99% ca p acity to run the club?....well thats another question....but looking at his cv he has experience in football and as a former man city employee I do hope we can start making some football decisions as well as financial ones......here's hoping. Ps...I'm a happy man.
Thank you Jay. Great summary, even though I'm still as thick as can be !! What has happened to Chien Lee's 30%? Does he still own 30% of the club through New York Capital, or whatever it's called? If he has been ousted from the board what does it actually mean .... in very plain and simple English please.
He still owns 30% shares in BFC Investment Company Ltd. A large slice, but a minority. This gives him voting rights at an AGM, annual general meeting., but 70% of shares are not owned by him and can out vote him, which is what has happened here. So, as far as BFC is concerned, he has been voted off the board and therefore has no say at all in how it is run. None. Zero. And he won't have until the next AGM of BFC Investment Company when the board members of BFC will be up for election again. At which point he'll still only have 30% shares, if he hasn't sold them by then, and will be outvoted on every decision by the other 70% once more.
Given we don't know the make up of "the investor" group, nor do we know the period Julie Anne Quay is acting as their representative, nor do we know if any special resolutions exist within the shareholder agreement, nor do we know if the investment group is a fixed permanent group or ever changing, we can't be absolute that Chien Lee and Paul Conway will never have an ability to affect the club in some way. Granted, at this point, Lee and Conway have made a mess of things and lost controlling ability. But it's not impossible that things could again change at some future point and Lee's considerable holding could be useful for one of the other groups who may fall out with some of the other shareholders. The only way we'll be completely free from Conway and Lee is when their shareholding is nil or diluted to such a nominal level that it can't possible form a future block if boardroom power shifts once again.