This was going to my question - couldn’t find an answer online when this was initially announced on Christmas Eve. So the £300m investment will result in new shares being issued for that value? Any idea what ownership % that would take INEOS to if it’s over and above the initial 25%?
Going forward do you know how further investment and dilution would work in practise? Presumably issuing new shares would require Board approval so does that mean it can be blocked by the Glazers - i.e. if INEOS wanted to invest £2bn into infrastructure is that an open pathway to ultimately gaining majority control?
Yes, the sterling equivalent of 300M dollars would go straight in to the club's cash flow from the proceeds of the sale of new shares.
The number of new shares created will depend on the price per share agreed for that transaction. At, say, a convenient 30 dollars a share, 10m new shares are created meaning total number of issued shares goes from about 165m to 175m. 165/175 (94%) would be the dilution factor- so someone who owned 10% of the club pre issue would own 9.4% after. JR would own about 41m (165/4) of the "old" shares, which when combined with the 10m new shares, would give him about 29% (51/175) ownership.
His voting power would be north of 25% with the exact value determined by the A/B split in the new issue.
So, the size of the investment and the set price per share are key to dilution and ownership for this and any further issue of shares. Parties would have to agree terms and prevailing market condition would play a role.
Most decisions at board level are by majority rule (50+%). Some key decisions require north of 2/3 of the votes, so currently (and even with the 300m dollar equity investment), the Glazer voting bloc would hold sway on little and large. I wouldn't expect too much discord at board level- the hot-button issues that can arise are largely known as is the means by which they can be resolved. We'll just have to see how workable this compartmentalized football operation malarkey is.
There could be an options pathway for JR to acquire further control which might be reflected in an amended articles of association. The legal standing of B shares will need to be altered to accommodate this deal. The devil is in the fine print and all that stuff will be disclosed in due course.