The Board of the Fleet Trust today, 12 May 2013, informed Brian Kilcullen, as representative of the minority shareholders of Ebbsfleet United Football Club (EUFC), of its decision to support the offer from KEH Sports Limited (KSL) to purchase the entire issued share capital of EUFC.
The Trust weighed up the two offers on the table, the first from Carlos Kabir Karani and the more recent bid from KEH Sports Limited, and has concluded that the offer from KSL is in the best interest of the club.
It is the Trust’s belief that the involvement of Peter Varney, the respected ‘football man’ who returned Charlton Athletic to their rightful home at The Valley, provides the gravitas, business acumen, experience and knowledge which EUFC requires at this point in the club’s history.
The Trust Board acknowledge, by making this decision, that the Trust will lose its shareholding in the club. Whilst this is regrettable, especially in the age of an increase in supporter ownership of clubs, it is the necessary course of action at the present time.
The Board also acknowledge that this decision goes against the views of Trust members who overwhelmingly supported Carlos’ offer at the public meeting held on 17 April 2013. Having recently received an outline business plan, the Board has still not received to its satisfaction sufficient financial information from Carlos at this time to enable the Trust to support his offer.
The Board would like to place on record its thanks to Carlos for the time he spent attending Fleet matches, meeting with the fans and providing an open and honest dialogue with the Board’s Sub-Group through many hours of discussion.
The Board would also like to place on record that, following the My Football Club (MyFC) vote result published on 22 April 2013, the Trust did not receive, and has not subsequently received, any formal offer from MyFC to transfer by gift two-thirds of their EUFC shareholding to the Trust.
The Fleet Trust now calls upon MyFC to sell their entire shareholding of EUFC to KSL, and urges all MyFC members to use their vote in order for the required turnout figure to be reached.
Once the outcome of the MyFC vote has been published tomorrow (13 May 2013) a further statement will be released.
