BFC - Owners put in more cash

Just filed today there has been another equity issuance with the owners putting in a further £2.1m on 3 March.

On 23 June they put in £1million, on 21 October £3.2m and on 3 March a further £2.1m.

Support from the owners over the last nine months is confirmed at £6.3m as equity. No further debt and the club are definitely moving in the right direction.

This was outlined in the last accounts and confirmed with today’s filings.

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Damn, too slow! Nice work @Archerfield

 

Hopefully as many fans as possible can see this and try give the board some leeway in the future. I know they've made mistakes but it takes time to amend - they're clearly doing their best and as you say, definitely moving in the right direction.

 

Thanks for the update. Good to see they are keeping us afloat. I hope this quells some of the "sweating the assets" folk.

 

Out of interest what did the Crynes originally invest? And what was the equity to debt balance?

 

Per the Hong Kong site, as Archerfield has set out above, a new share issue in BFC Investment Company Ltd was made on 3rd March 2023.

The issue consisted of 20,342,550 'A' shares and 6,000,000 'B' (Cryne) shares each valued at a princely 8p! This raised £2,107,404.

[Interestingly, for the first time as far as I can recall one of the 'A' shareholders did not subscribe. Chien Lee, PMG (Conway/Hung), Neerav Parekh and Julie-Anne Quay took allotments but Joshua D. Samuelson did not. Also Neerav has taken a larger percentage of this investment than his previous share-holding would suggest and Chien Lee and PMG smaller ones.] - edit see also two posts below.

In cash terms this new March money has come from Chien Lee £552,000, PMG £85,404, Neerav Parekh £846,056, JAQ £144,000 and the Crynes £480,000.

 

Is it possible to tell if Neerav has effectively taken on Joshua's shares?

 

Not directly from this document itself but it is perfectly possible and I'd say is the case given further analysis of the numbers.

The document lodged last week in Hong Kong just gives the details of the new share issue. Confirmation of transfers of shares only seems to be detailed in the annual return which I think is due around June time.

However, connecting the dots and working backwards on this latest issue from the fact that the Crynes 20% equated to 6,000,000 new 'B' shares then there would have been 24,000,000 'A' shares 'on offer' proportionately for the '80%-ers'. Neerav has taken 10,575,000 of these 'A' shares which exactly equals his previous percentage plus that of Joshua Samuelson. So it does look as if Neerav has further increased his stake.

In this March issue JAQ took exactly the same percentage as her previous holding with 1,800,000 new shares and it is Chien (6,900,000 taken v 9,375,000 proportionate to previous percentage) and PMG (1,067,550 v 2,250,000) that have seemingly not taken up their full allocations.

 

The result of this would be that for the first time Chien Lee is no longer the single largest shareholder, with Neerav's individual holding becoming the largest. It would also mean that the effective power within BFC Investment Company relies now on just two people, namely Neerav and JAQ, being on the same page (which, as they appear to be, seems positive).

Just to recap, it is the Board of BFC Investment Company Limited that appoints the Board of the Football Club and it is the holders of 51% of the 'A' shares in BFC Investment Company that appoint 4 of the Board members of BFC Investment Company. The 'B' Shares appoint 1.

As I assess it now, Neerav and JAQ together have 52.72% of the 'A' shares, up from 51.56% before this share issue (and including the Samuelson shares).

And the overall capital structure of BFC Investment Company would now seem to be:-

A Shares

Neerav (Abhajay Ltd) 35.88% (up from 30.25%)
JAQ (Jamakepe LLC) 6.11% (up from 6.00%)
Chien 30.60% (down from 31.25%)
PMG 7.05% (down from 7.50%)

B Shares

Crynes (Oakwell Holdings) 20.36% (up from 20.00%)

 

This does all look promising in terms of investment in the club.

Can anyone remind me of the most recent/most concise statement of the aims of the Board as now constituted, and how they propose to realise them?

The picture would then be complete (although as ever, much will be revealed by dealings in the summer, whether we are promoted or not).

 

Fantastic stuff. Credit where it’s due to this new board set up.

 

So let's say Neerav, JAQ and the Crynes are all on the same page - they effectively run the club?

 

It is great that the club is being supported by equity and not debt.

The facts are that the club needs external support because of the damage done to the finances under the Conway led board.

After their initial takeover the club was debt free with around £5m of cash on balance sheet. Four years later the cash had gone and the club were looking at £4m pa operating losses. The notion that Conway had built adopted a sustainable approach to running the club was certainly not true, he’d gambled with the club’s finances with his scattergun approach to recruitment and failed.

The current board are trying to turn round what was an awful position both on and off the field.So far they are doing a great job.

As Neerav did say ‘Spectemur Agendo’.

 

Nothing about the ground ownership I guess?

 

It was the Wall Street Journal not Rent a Home.

 

The news hasn't come from an announcement. It's just the Companies House filing on the rights issue showing up within the public domain.

 

Thanks to those who’ve done this research it’s really important this stuff is transparent and written in a way everyone understands.

Remind me again, is it the board who agree/vote to invest and then other non board shareholders (Lee/Conway) have no choice but to invest or lose shares?

Will Lee/Conway have decided not take take up some shares and so others have bought them? How does that side all work?

 

Thanks for all the info and time taken, much appreciated.
Does the above mean that Chien has reduced his shareholding?

 

How are they going to get an eventual return on their investments? Josiah to Real Madrid for 30 million €

 

In this recent issue of shares Chien has increased his number of shares but not to the same extent as Neerav, JAQ and the Crynes. That has had the impact of reducing his overall percentage of the shares marginally. (Same with Conway/PMG).

Chien/Conway won't lose their existing shares but their shareholding as a percentage will be reduced/diluted.

In this latest share issue Neerav, JAQ and the Crynes have taken shares in proportion to their previous shareholding and have not taken up the ones that Chien and Conway/PMG appear to have passed up on adding.

In practice, whilst ever Neerav and JAQ own the majority of the 'A' shares that is the case.

Somewhat strangely, even if the Crynes jumped ship and 'fell in love' with Chien and Conway (not going to happen!) that would barely change things as the Crynes ('B' shares) can only nominate one Board member to BFC Investment Company. Neerav and JAQ can nominate up to four as the majority 'A' shareholders.