Source: Daily_Mail
Arsenal aim to keep club in safe hands with cut-price 'fanshare' offer to supporters
Arsenal Supporters Trust have launched a new initiative aimed to help fans buy a small shareholding and increase their representation in the Barclays Premier League club. [LNB]'Arsenal Fanshare' has the full backing of the Gunners, who have American Stan Kroenke as their largest individual stakeholder, with the long-term custodianship and legacy of the club always a pressing issue for the board. [LNB]Supporters will be able to sign up on line to the scheme, which offers the opportunity to purchase 'fanshares' at just one hundredth of the price of those in Arsenal Holdings Plc - around £95 - and will be entered into a ballot for a seat at the club's Annual General Meeting. [LNB] Power to the people: The North London club are aiming to 'increase supporter ownership and representation', according to the Arsenal Supporters' Trust[LNB]Anyone eventually purchasing 100 will have their membership statusconverted to receive full voting rights for one share. The ASTcollectively speak for approximately 3 per cent of the club's overallequity. [LNB] AST spokesperson Tim Payton said: 'ArsenalFanshare has been established by the AST to increase supporterownership and representation at Arsenal. [LNB] 'The ASTrecently surveyed its membership on their preferred ownership structureat Arsenal - 90 per cent of AST members rate maintaining the club'scustodianship and protecting the long-term future to be the mostimportant priority of Arsenal's board. [LNB]'There is littlesupport for the club being taken private, with 84 per cent preferringArsenal's ownership model to be one which includes supporterrepresentation. [LNB]'Arsenal Fanshare meets Arsenal supporters'objective that the club remains in plural ownership. Arsenal is simplytoo important an institution to be owned by just one person. [LNB]'The AST welcomes the support that the Arsenal board and chief executive Ivan Gazidis have given to the scheme.[LNB]Backing: Arsenal will promote the scheme at the home game against Blackpool [LNB]'The support Arsenal Fanshare has from all of the club's major shareholders should allow all talk of a takeover to be put to one side. [LNB]'We urge all Arsenal fans to take this opportunity and get involved - by working together we can make Arsenal even stronger.'[LNB]Arsenal are to help promote the scheme at their first home game of the new season, against Blackpool on Saturday. [LNB]Currently, American tycoon Kroenke is Arsenal's largest individual shareholder at 29.9 per cent. [LNB]Alisher Usmanov backs the Red & White Holdings group, whose stake is at just over 26 per cent, but unlike Kroenke the Uzbek-born mining billionaire has not been invited onto the Arsenal board. [LNB]Key to the future ownership of the club would appear to be the stock of Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith, who left the board during December 2008 and has appointed a private-equity firm to sell her 15.9 per cent. [LNB]Takeover talk: Stan Kroenke[LNB]Kroenke's move to purchase the remaining 60 per cent holding in the St Louis Rams American football team franchise would appear to rule the American - whose personal wealth is estimated by Forbes at some £2.9billion - out of a making an imminent full takeover at Arsenal, likely to cost the best part of £400million. [LNB]Under the City's takeover rule, were Kroenke Sports Enterprises to purchase another 10 shares, then they would trigger the £30 per cent threshold. [LNB]Should Denver-based Kroenke - who also has interests in both the NBA's Denver Nuggets and the NHL's Colorado Avalanche - then acquire more than 50 per cent of the shares, he will gain legal control of the club. [LNB]If he reached 90 per cent, the American could compulsorily purchase the remaining shares. However, if the group failed to surpass the 50 per cent level, they would be prohibited from making another takeover bid for at least a year - unless asked to do so by the club. [LNB]Kroenke first bought a 9.99 per cent stake in the Gunners during April 2007, which prompted chairman Peter Hill-Wood to famously declare 'we don't need his sort'. [LNB]The American, however, has slowly increased his ties with the Gunners, striking up a partnership with his Colorado Rapids Major League Soccer franchise. [LNB] Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis, though, feels a change of direction behind the scenes is not imminent. 'I don't see anything dramatic happening with the ownership,' Gazidis said. [LNB]'Of course we are a public company and I manage the club and cannot control what happens with the ownership, but I don't sense there will be any changes. [LNB]'Certainly all of our owners and the vast majority of our fans strongly support the custodian model we have.'[LNB] Arsenal and Fulham on alert as Given is given green light to leave Man CitySign up to our FREE Fantasy Football game - with £40,000 in prize money up for grabsAlmunia admits: I'm frustrated by transfer talk and may leave ArsenalARSENAL FC
