Gunners agree to sell 80% shares
Tumelo Mouwane | Wednesday February 10, 2016 15:00
Sources however said of the remaining 20 percent, 10 might be sold to another investor. Gunners have been battling financial challenges over the years despite the team being one of the highly supported in the country.
It is said the previous committee was opposed to the idea of selling shares, but supporters voted in favour of privatisation. Extension Gunners public relations officer, Edwin Mabapa told Mmegi Sport the meeting agreed to pursue the club’s privatisation.
“We have reached a mutual understanding as Gunners family from all over the country,” he said. “An overwhelming number of Gunners family agreed with the committee to continue pursuing the model of privatisation.”
“The chairman presented to Gunners stakeholders that we have identified a willing investor who wants to come on board. Our first resolution is that the investor will take 80% shares whiles the society will remain with the remaining 20%,” Mabapa added. He said the committee and the investor agreed on a ‘non-disclosure clause’ where they cannot identify the investor until a specific time.
“We cannot disclose the investor’s name since we agreed on a non-disclosure clause,” he said.
Mabapa said they also resolved to form a task team, which would deal with the matter before a final agreement is reached. He said they have been given the go ahead to amend the constitution to allow them to privatise the team.
“To go forward with our initiative, we resolved to form a task force, which will introspect into many aspects including legal issues before we seal the deal. We were drawn to the fact that our constitution must allow us to carry on with privatisation as the previous document did not allow for such. We have been given the green light to amend the constitution,” Mabapa said.
An official who attended the meeting said this is the direction they want the club to take. “What we don’t want is situations which are taking place in other teams where there is a brawl over team’s finances,” he said. The source, further said the team started to make better returns since the new committee took office.
“Money from gate takings has not been properly accounted for in previous years,” he said. “We have seen a huge improvement since the new leadership took office.”