Michael Kenrick 04/03/2025 11comments  |  Jump to last

Minority Everton shareholders, who fear the recent takeover of the club has led to a dramatic collapse in the value of their shares, have had a request to meet the new owner, The Friedkin Group (TFG), rejected by interim CEO Colin Chong.

There are about 1,500 individual supporters who together own 7,912 shares, which before Everton were sold by Farhad Moshiri to TFG in December, amounted to 5% of the club.

Ian Kilbride, a lifelong fan of the club and businessman calculates that his own stake has dropped in value from £680,000 to about £35,000, based on the price of £3,400 he paid to increase his total number of shares to 200 in November.

That was the last time when shares were being privately traded at auction, for a median price of £3,400. But the £400M takeover of the club by TFG led to the creation of huge number of additional shares, increasing the total from 135,000 to more than 1.6 million. 

This simple and seemingly arbitrary decision has decimated the value of the stake held by small shareholders to now less than 0.5%, leaving concerned fans estimating that each individual share has plummeted in value from £3,400 to as little as £175.

Kilbride, who has the support of former Everton director Cliff Finch and other minority shareholders who have made a significant investment in the club, met members of the Everton board on February 4 in the hope of securing an offer from TFG for their shares.

At the meeting, Kilbride asked Colin Chong, Everton’s interim Chief Executive Officer, if he could organise a meeting with TFG, led by American Dan Friedkin, to discuss the issue directly. However, Chong responded on February 11 by saying that TFG did not consider such a meeting necessary.  

“I and others are now left with the feeling that more than 1,500 Evertonians, who are actually shareholders, are not worth a 30-minute meeting in the eyes of TFG,” Kilbride told The Times. “This is not a reasonable, sensible or, given the way the shareholder value has been destroyed, [an] honourable way to behave.”

Finch, who served as a director when Peter Johnson was Everton Chairman in the late 1990s, still has 50 shares in the club, despite selling some to Kilbride last year. Even now, he is staring at a potential loss of more than £130,000. Another supporter of Kilbride may have lost more than twice that amount.

“I am not so worried about myself, but the little guy has been cast aside here,” Finch said. “Morally, there should be an obligation here for the principal owners to do the right thing.”

According to the most recent documents, the estate of the late chairman, Bill Kenwright, is the biggest of the minority shareholders with 1,750 shares and facing potential losses of as much as £5M.

Quotes sourced from The Times

Reader Comments (11)

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Mike Gaynes
1 Posted 04/03/2025 at 15:34:34
Seems like you're blaming Chong for something that wasn't his call.

It would appear we're getting short shrift from TFG, not Chong.

Eric Myles
2 Posted 04/03/2025 at 15:36:29
Don't these guys that buy shares read the small print that says the value may go down?

Some obviously thought they would make loadsa money buying up shares at the announcement of a takeover so it's just tough shit that they guessed wrong.

I suspect that the majority of the small shareholders just own a single share and are in it for sentimental reasons, not to make money.

And the headline is a bit misleading if it was actually TFG that refused the meeting, not Colin Chong.

Eric Myles
3 Posted 04/03/2025 at 15:48:06
And I take exception to this "minority shareholders who have made a significant investment in the club"

Buying a share off of another shareholder makes no investment into the Club at all, it just enriches the private seller who the share was bought from.

Dennis Stevens
4 Posted 04/03/2025 at 15:58:40
Indeed, Eric, I doubt many of the shares were bought directly from the Club.

Andy Riley
5 Posted 04/03/2025 at 16:05:17
I’m a single shareholder and not really concerned with this. The Times article mentions that the estate of BK may have lost circa £5 million in the TFG takeover but I’d be interested to learn what the overall profit of BK was since he purchased (with others) the majority shareholding from Peter Johnson and then sold on to Moshiri?
Raymond Fox
7 Posted 04/03/2025 at 16:39:11
I've no axe to grind in this happening but it is a savage reduction in value.
I fear that the minority shareholders are going to have to scowl and bear it.
Jay Harris
8 Posted 04/03/2025 at 16:42:52
The real problem is the amount of debt (negative equity) that Moshiri and Kenwright built up which was why Moshiri had to take a bath and accordingly the other shareholders too including minority shareholders.

Blame the previous board not the new owners.

Allen Rodgers
9 Posted 04/03/2025 at 16:52:32
I can't see the point of a meeting between we shareholders / EFCSA and some functionary of TFG.
They would probably say - we don't want your shares, sell or keep them as you wish, nothing has changed vis-a-vis the number of shares available to the public.
They are hard-headed businessmen. They took away our 5% discount without even telling EFCSA. I don't expect anything from them except, hopefully, results on the field.
John Raftery
10 Posted 04/03/2025 at 16:54:52
The words ‘tough shit’ spring to mind. TFG have said previously they have no intention of purchasing the minority shares. That is fine by me. I have no wish to sell. No minority shareholder will be selling at £175 or anything resembling that sum unless they are truly desperate.

The market for minority shares is governed by normal economic principles. Supply is limited. Demand is robust. Prices will be high.

Brent Stephens
12 Posted 04/03/2025 at 17:12:45
As Mike #1 says.
Kevin Molloy
13 Posted 04/03/2025 at 17:14:37
I understand Jenny Seagrove has challenged Dan Friedkin to single combat, with the loser forfeiting their life and all claims to profits from Blue Holdings.

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