Fans’ Trust hoping to track down lost shares

EXETER City’s owners, the Supporters’ Trust, is attempting to trace around 100 people who have bought shares in the club over the last century.

The club, which is legally obliged to hold an up-to-date share register at St James Park, is making a concerted effort to track down a number of missing shareholders or the next of kin of those who have passed away.

It is believed the earliest shares date back to the 1930s and may have been passed down through people’s families.

Nick Hawker, chairman of Exeter City Supporters’ Trust, said: “We are making a real effort to find all the club’s missing shareholders and we are asking people to help us. The missing shareholders fall into two categories – those we know to have died whose shares were not transferred and those who have moved where we don’t have their current address. In quite a few cases we have no address at all.”

The Supporters’ Trust is the largest shareholder, owning 52 per cent of the shares. The next largest is 15 per cent, but the majority of those the club is trying to trace are single shares.

Nick added: “There were various reasons people bought them, some organisations bought them so they could attend the AGM, others were bought as mementos, people have told us their parents or grandparents had their share framed and hung on the wall.”

The Supporters’ Trust is offering to buy shares at £1 per share from people who no longer want them.

If people want to take up the offer they should contact the club at shares@ecfc.co.uk.

You can also write to the Supporters’ Trust at the club, marking the envelope ‘shares’, before Friday, June 19, at Exeter City Supporters’ Trust, St James Park, Stadium Way, Exeter, EX4 6PX.