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Shares in BCFC
There have been some Blues fans recently contacted with regards to shareholdings in Birmingham City Football Club that they have retained despite the almost complete purchase of the outstanding stock in the club by Carson Yeung in 2009.
The method of contact has been the same; a company working on behalf of a secretive client willing to pay for outstanding shares in BCFC that would like to offer potentially up to £15 per share to do so. When pushed, the company contacting Blues fans has talked of a potential hostile takeover of the club and asked for BCFC shareholders to sign non-disclosure agreements.
As I had been previously contacted by a few concerned fans I have spent some time trying to get to the bottom of this. The facts that are out there are as follows.
As per the last available breakdown, BIH owns roughly 96.64% of BCFC plc. (source)
This leaves roughly 3.36% of BCFC in private owners hands.
Thus the implication would be it would be incredibly hard to mount a takeover without making an offer for the massive majority of BCFC shares, which are in the hands of BIH.
Carson Yeung was criticised for overpaying for the club, at £1 a share. Thus an offer of £12 per share for the remaining public shares has therefore got to be an incredible overpayment for what they are worth based on that information.
I have contacted via email one of the companies responsible for contacting BCFC shareholders – Campbell Stewart Advisory of Seattle, USA. They have not acknowledged my contact or made a reply.
Whilst I am not a trained lawyer or accountant it is my opinion that nobody pays an incredible amount over the odds without a catch. I would urge anybody contacted by anyone to sell their shares in BCFC plc to contact a trained financial advisor or similar to discuss the situation with them prior to making any decision or signing any non-disclosure agreement.
If I gain further information that is pertinent, I will update this post.
Tags: Shares
29 Responses to “Shares in BCFC”
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Wow what on earth is going on? Is this a scam?
Maybe its something to do with the 10% thing as i think in the Uk the company law says you have very little control of matters if you have this amount of shares or less. I was always advised when i was offered directorships of companies to ensure I had more than this amount if I wanted any sort of say whatsoever.
Experts I am sure will explain it better but maybe someone is attempting to get above this figure for whatever reason as 1% could make all the difference to their position.
Just a guess.
For the cost of £15 plus brokerage an individual / corporate body get access to company accounts, attendance at the AGM, can question the Company and just make a nuisance of themselves if they feel they are being obstructed or stone-walled. A cheap price to pay.
Very strange. I wonder if this is connected to anyone in the know re: accounts?
This sounds like a boiler room scam (I think that is how it is referred to..)
Basically, after you agree to sell the shares at such a premium, the agent contacts you again saying you need to pay some kind of tax upfront as they are being purchased overseas. Then, they take your money and you never hear from them again.
I may not have decribed the scenario exactly, but that is the basic jist.
If its too good to be true, thats because it isnt!
Purchased my share at the ‘Blue Revolution’ meeting at Digbeth Civic Hall in the early 1980’s and still have shares today, and forever more. Will not sell at any price. KRO.
It’s a scam, pure and simple
This is freaky, I had a letter today from HSBC, mynbankmwarning me that there is a large amount of boiler room scams at the moment, and do not give any details to companies for abroad asking to buy or sell shares.
Be careful
sounds like a boiler room scam, don’t give any details over the phone
can be reported to FSA
http://www.fsa.gov.uk/consumerinformation/scamsandswindles/investment_scams/boiler_room
If they were genuine then they would more than likely be based in the UK.
If you get a call ask them where they got your details and what their registration number with the FSA is and then hang up.
You can always check them out without revealing any of your personal info.
Suprised the address is Seattle,,,,,,,on past evidence of Blues share dealings would have thought Las Vegas, Macao, Scily, Sun City or Nigeria would have been favourite
I made the mistake of pressing the Notify me of follow up comments by email. I had about 20 emails today. How do I discontinue this?
I will find out and get back to you
I have found that you subscribe to a particular post so you only get details on that particular subject. You don’t get them on other topics unless you subscribe again so they will die a death fairly quickly. You can unsubscribe by going into the link email you had and just asking to delete.
I’ve read your comments over a number of years but still they don’t make sense or are anywhere founded. If you are going to post something substantial then be factual. Every one knows the financial troubles, but they don’t know how bad they are. We will be in administration by the beginning of next season and liquidation is a true prospect. You potray as if you are an insider, you haven’t got a clue.
Think your talking out your “chocolate star~fish” weeeeeeeeejohn.
There’s always one pleb!
WeeJohn says “liquidation is a true prospect”.
Sorry your way off and totally unfounded. Blues are paying all their bills and meeting their commitments so are solvent.
Wind up ??
Are shares still suspended?
Shares in BIH are. Shares in bcfc are a different kettle of fish entirely
I’d love this to be true, I’d bite their hand off if it was.
WeeJohn asks Almajir to “be factual” and then states “we will be in administration by the beginning of next season” as if he himself has insider knowledge. He needs to look up the word consistency in the dictionary. Almajir spends hours digging up information that paid journalists can’t find. He should be applauded for it. By the way, as someone who has worked in financial services for over 20 years, this does sound highly suspicious and is likely to be a scam. That’s not a statement of fact it’s simply a recommendation to proceed with extreme caution.
I have been contacted by phone about 10 times by this company….which amounts to harassment…I have e-mailed back to them and explained I have sold my shares to Carson Yeung in 2009. I’m not sure why this has been happening…and will watch this thread with interest….Scam or no Scam…this seems slighly weird…why offer so much for each share…?
I too received a communication along these lines but replied that I would never sell blind whatever the offer as who owns my club means more to me than a short term financial gain. Tell me who wants to buy before I even look at the offer.
I still have 1750 shares as I just didn’t trust this anonymous chinese guy who was a hairdresser with no details on his wealth accumalation. When he couldn’t raise the money first time of asking that made my mind up and I kept my shares much to the hilarity of the money grabbers who basically did the same as Sully and Gold and were happy to sell to anyone as long as they got a £1 a share. Quick enought to complain about em now though aint they?
Irony is I would now make 15x more than them if I sold but what’s 26 grand in the bigger scheme of things? Let’s see who’s involved first.
Unfortuantely, this is a scam and is not a legitimate approach. Any firm offering to buy or sell shares owned by UK investors must be authorised by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) otherwise they are conducting a criminal offence. Campbell Stewart Advisory are NOT authorised by the FSA and will shortly be appearing on their unauthorised firms list:
http://www.fsa.gov.uk/doing/regulated/law/alerts/unauthorised-firms
Alex T is correct – it is a boiler room. They will have got the shareholding details from the share registrar. They’ll offer a price that’s too good to be true but the catch is that you’ll need to pay for a restriction or similar to be lifted. This scam should be reported to the FSA and the City of London Police who are responsible for coordinating Operation Archway, the national intelligence reporting system for boiler room fraud:
http://www.cityoflondon.police.uk/CityPolice/Departments/ECD/Fraud/boilerroom.htm
The FSA’s contact details are:
Write: Customer Contact Centre, Financial Services Authority, 25 The North Colonnade, London. E14 5HS
Email: Consumer.Queries@fsa.gov.uk
Call: 0845 602 2185
Just been contacted by this company about my shares in celtic FC. They are offering £10 per share..Think it is scam as they keep calling about signing over my shares. Got told to keep quiet about selling shares as it might affect the party they are dealing with. Thanks for confirming my thoughts on this being a scam.
[…] in BCFC Update A little while ago I wrote a piece about an American firm by the name of Campbell Stewart Advisory contacting Birmingham City fans […]
The Official site is now carrying an article from the FSA stating that they believe this to be a scam and are advising fans to steer well clear of this company.
Have a link:-
http://www.bcfc.com/page/News/NewsDetail/0,,10412~2787525,00.html
I have updated the blog accordingly