Trust update on Dale ownership

ROCHDALE AFC fans’ group, Dale Supporters Trust, has updated members on where things stand with the ownership of the club – and the hostile takeover attempt by Andy Curran and Darrell Rose.

Rose and Curran launched a hostile bid for control of Rochdale via Rose’s company Morton House Mgt and First Form Construction Limited.

The ownership of the club is broken up into 502,957 ordinary shares which are owned by 337 different parties. If any one party ever achieves ownership of 251,479 ordinary shares in their own name or consortium, they would control the club and it would no longer be independent.

Right now, Rose and Curran do not officially own any shares.

However, there are strong indications that, via a broker called Alex Jarvis of Blackbridge Sports Limited, they have done a series of small conditional deals with five different shareholders.

The condition they require for each deal to be completed is that the EFL support a change of control to Rose and Curran.

Without that support, those conditional deals with five different shareholders will fall over.

It is highly unlikely that Rose and Curran would invest a significant sum buying shares without being able to guarantee a controlling shareholding.

To be regarded as a valid transfer, the club must receive signed transfer forms from the selling party transferring ownership to be the buyer and the transfer be ratified at a club board meeting. To date, nothing has been received by the club.

The five shareholders who have believed to have sold conditionally are Andrew Kilpatrick (110,000 shares), North Yard Analytics (37,343), Geregdan LLC (37,342), Graham Rawlinson (14,250), David Bottomley (12,960). Both North Yard Analytics and Geregdan LLC are represented by

Dan Altman and Emre Marcelli.

Even if the five shareholdings above are achieved, giving a 42 per cent share in the club, currently Curran and Rose are still 39 ,584 shares short of a majority.

Without the ability to acquire any further shares they would be a large shareholder but able to be outvoted by the other 58pc of shareholders which in the main are 332 different fans, many who have held the shares in their families over generations.

They would also require EFL clearance to conclude a deal. In addressing the question as to how much Morton House MGT and First Form Construction Ltd are worth, the Trust s t a tement said: “Based on its last published accounts in July 2020, just £171,000. That’s not very much. “This is certainly not enough to be able to acquire the shares needed and to inject relevant funds into the club.

“It’s therefore very unclear where the source and uses of the funds for a hostile takeover have come from, something that the club and the EFL will be interested to understand.”

And with regards to the next move, the Trust added: “We wait and see. The club has not yet received any share transfer forms in relation to any shareholder deal.

“Should Rose and Curran fail the EFL’S test then not only do they not have a majority shareholding but also, they would not be recognised as capable owners.

“In that case, the deals would be expected to fail and the five existing shareholders remain as owners of their shares.

“Alternatively, Rose and Curran could agree more share purchases with shareholders who wanted to sell to gain an even bigger stake in the club.”

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