Dundee FC’s owners have made a fresh bid to boost their control in the club to over 75%.
The Tele revealed in January that Football Partners Scotland (FPS), the majority shareholder owned by Tim Keyes, had made a move to buy the ‘A’ Ordinary shares owned by the Dundee Football Club Supporters Society.
With those came rights of veto regarding a range of issues including a stadium share or potential merger with another club.
That was knocked back by the Society and now Dundee finance director David Gray has written to them in an attempt to buy their Ordinary shares to bring FPS’ holding to 75.2%.
This would allow them to claim Group Tax Relief to offset losses made by the club. A deadline of March 14 has been made by the club for the Society to decide on two proposals put forward by Dundee FC.
The first would see FPS buy the Ordinary shares for £8,000, the club’s preferred option. These shares have a nominal value, at 1 pence per share, of £140,000.
The second is for DFCSS to “agree to support resolutions which increase the club’s share capital and then allot shares specifically to FPS”.
Currently there is no provision in the Society’s rules to sell shares and an extraordinary general meeting would be needed to change that, and with it a vote by its members.
The Financial Conduct Authority would also need to be contacted, a process which could take months.
DFCSS already had a board meeting scheduled for next Tuesday and will discuss the proposals and their response as a board as well as with their members, despite the sharp time constraint.
In a statement, the club added: “At a time when our primary focus is on retaining our Premiership status, we would prefer not to have to undertake an unnecessary time consuming and expensive full share issue and we hope that the Society will support us in agreeing to one of the suggested options.”