JF Statement on the OS 21/09

Quoted from davmariner

True, but didn't Parker say he that he wouldn't mind this? When Parker bought shares didn't this happen to Fenty's existing shares?

i'm fairly certain that there is a set amount of unissued shares - i have a vague recollection of 300-400,000??
and that is why if fenty bought 350k of unissued shres he'd diminish parker's % by a few points and increase his accordingly, so putting fenty back as the majority shareholder

incidentally - i'm beginning to wonder just how the takeover panel was alerted. i'm so cynical that i could imagine that they might be alerted by someone who thought it would be in their interest to have the'pot stirred' by a regulatory body

Quoted from gtfc98

The way I see it Fenty is looking for an exit strategy. He thought he could use Parkers controlling holding as a reason and force Parker into take control of the club. It hasn't work, he hasn't been able to force his hand and as a result we have a situation where neither of our benefactors appear to be willing to further finance the club.


What level of the pyramid will we be able to re-enter into next season?

That was exactly my thoughts on the situation too. My mind hasn't been changed yet... Unless MP can convince himself to running the club and restructuring the board while employing a new Chairperson, I feel the Club could easily be history before the end of the season.

Quoted from forza ivano

i'm fairly certain that there is a set amount of unissued shares - i have a vague recollection of 300-400,000??
and that is why if fenty bought 350k of unissued shres he'd diminish parker's % by a few points and increase his accordingly, so putting fenty back as the majority shareholder

incidentally - i'm beginning to wonder just how the takeover panel was alerted. i'm so cynical that i could imagine that they might be alerted by someone who thought it would be in their interest to have the'pot stirred' by a regulatory body

My thoughts too and if the reason for all of this is as I suspect JF wants out it would suit him for them to come in and say to MP he has to make an offer for all the shares because of that rule 9 shite...

Quoted from gtfc98

The way I see it Fenty is looking for an exit strategy. He thought he could use Parkers controlling holding as a reason and force Parker into take control of the club. It hasn't work, he hasn't been able to force his hand and as a result we have a situation where neither of our benefactors appear to be willing to further finance the club.


What level of the pyramid will we be able to re-enter into next season?

If MP and JF somehow walk away and surrendered their shares / loans etc:

If they walk away and there actually is no debt (no idea if we have overdrafts etc but I think it’s likely), we can cut our cloth accordingly and cut the players wage bill from 900k+ then we could probably compete at this level by gradually releasing the contracted players and replacing them with cheaper players. Trouble is several are contracted beyond this season.

Okay, I'm pulling this out of the air but based on a gate of 3000 fans x 23 games (can't assume cup games) at an average of £12 a punter (big assumption I know, some will be kids etc) the gate receipts would be around 828k per year. Sponsorship and shirt sales, minimal at this level - perhaps 80k to take the total income to around 900k. TV money, don’t think there is any. The ground doesn’t really generate any income streams aside from match days (wonder where I got that term from?!).

Running costs? Utilities, non playing wage bill, ground upkeep, rates, tax AND players wages would have to be no more than 900k which is what we are paying the players alone.

No doubt my figures are woefully inaccurate but if they were about right, we could sustain Conference football on those figures without a benefactor.

If I was a Grimsby Town supporter I'd be tearing my hair out; as it is I've got a soft spot for the club and I find the Fenty/Parker stand-off rather sad. After so many miserable years of decline you finally have reasons to be cheerful and look to a brighter future; then this happens. With H&S, backed by the man who head-hunted them, I was confident of a good season 2011-12 and promotion in May, 2013. If this had all blown up a year ago it wouldn't have been so maddening, but now a train that was steaming towards brighter, sunnier uplands is in danger of derailment.
There's a lot of criticism of Mr Fenty but I'd have thought it was Mr Parker whose disappearance from the stage was more to be desired, providing he doesn't ruin the club financially as he goes.

Quoted from 75

Neither of these two are coming out of this spat with any credit. Each statement and counter statement is damaging the club and putting off anyone daft enough to consider working with either of these two major shareholders.

A real chasm between MP and JF is evident. For Godsake, have some decorum, shut your mouths, leave that keyboard alone, get together and work things out for the good of this great football club. I haven't had any dealings with Mike Parker, I have always found John Fenty approachable but I am disgusted he has published extracts of Mike Parker's e-mail on the clubs official site - we are an utter laughing stock, a joke and I am getting angrier by the minute.

Spot on. Our football club seems to be on the brink of disaster.

Quoted from forza ivano

i'd love to know why it doesn't solve the problem - buying 350k of shares puts him exactly back where he was - majority shareholder and in charge of the club. unless of course that buying shares does not suit his present agenda................

No it doesn't.

Parker owns 1,000,000 shares
Fenty owns 500,000 shares
There are approximately 360,000 other shares owned by minor shareholders.

Therefore currently Parker owns just under 54% of the club, Fenty just under 27% of the club and minority shareholders the remaining 19% or so.

If Fenty bought another 350,000 unissued shares instead of putting the cash in as a loan Parker's shareholding would be diluted to just over 45% and Fenty would still only own around 38% of the club.

It's all a load of rubbish anyway. The other directors only hold a token amount of shares each, so there has been less than 50% of the clubs shares owned by board members since March 1st when Parker left the board. Why has it taken over 6 months for this to become such a big issue and make Fenty's position apparently untenable?

And Fenty for such an experienced business man is forgetting that the board of directors is appointed by the shareholders to run the club, not the other way around.

And for Fenty to question why Parker is looking for a new Chairman external to the boardroom process is ridiculous. As he well knows Parker could call an EGM at any time he chooses and get rid of the entire board and bring his own people in. That is the real issue. It is not that board members don't own 50% of the club, it is that one single other person does and it's 2 months or so from the AGM and Fenty has decided to throw the first punch now.

And to claim the previous 25 years to his arrival had seen boardroom acrimony which harmed the club is daft- we spent 18 of those years in what is now called the Championship, 5 of them in League Two and only 2 of them in League Two. Fenty's stability on the other hand brought us our longest ever spell in the basement division of the Football League followed by Non-League oblivion.

Quoted from GollyGTFC

It's all a load of rubbish anyway. The other directors only hold a token amount of shares each, so there has been less than 50% of the clubs shares owned by board members since March 1st when Parker left the board. Why has it taken over 6 months for this to become such a big issue and make Fenty's position apparently untenable?

I think he must have been hoping to be able to persuade Parker to come back onto the board to continue to help funding the club. Last week, Parker obviously told him he has no intention of doing so - probably cutting his losses.

Not sure what Fenty is up to now. He is either publicising this turn of events so he gets more sympathy from the fans as he continues to bankroll the club or, alternatively, is starting to back off himself.

Let's hope the off-field boardroom games don't affect the on-field games too much.

Running GTFC at a huge loss is totally unsustainable even in the short term. Parker's position is that the club should cut it's cloth accordingly and spend what they earn. I appreciate it's hard to break even in Non-League, BUT planning for a £1 million loss over a year in advance is no way to run any business. Fenty's only solution has always be to throw more and more money in. There is another way.

I thought the most interesting quote was this

"There was a time when Mr Parker was considering rejoining the board of directors, but this was conditional upon several things, one of them was becoming the Chairman. (Supported by correspondence)"