Statement regarding EGM

The club have just released this statement on the back of tonight's EGM

At the Extraordinary General Meeting of the Company held within THE TONY MACARONI ARENA, ALDERSTONE ROAD, LIVINGSTON on Monday 17th April 2017 at 5.30pm, the following resolutions were approved by the Livingston FC Shareholders:
Robert Wilson appointed as a Director for the period to the next General Meeting.
John J Ward, Brian Ewing and Alan J Scott appointed as Directors of the Company for the period to the next general meeting.
The capital of the Company be increased from £1,200,000 to £5,000,000 by the creation of 3,800,000 Ordinary Shares of £1 each to rank pari passu in all respects with the existing shares on the capital of the Company be approved.
Subject to the Articles of Association adopted by the Company, the Directors be specially authorised to allot up to 3,800,000 Ordinary Shares of £1 each when fully paid at their discretion.
Gordon J Ford OBE appointed as Livingston FC, Honorary Vice President and Club Ambassador.
AOCB
Andy Gemmell has announced his retirement from the Livingston FC Board of Directors with immediate effect.
The Directors of Livingston 5 Ltd have accepted, in principle, an offer from a company led by John Ward and members of the Operations Committee for the purchase of their majority shareholding in Livingston FC, subject to the agreement of the Livingston 5 Ltd shareholders.
The offer is also subject to the completion of due diligence by the new company and approval by the necessary Football authorities.
The conclusion of the transaction is due shortly where thereafter the new company will be setting out its future plans which will include a Fans share offer with funds raised being ring fenced for the development of the First Team playing squad.

So potentially onwards & upwards. Here's hoping

Sounds encouraging if Livi 5 are going to be out of the picture. Looking forward to hearing what the plans are for the future.

John Ward seems like he's got his head screwed on compared to previous owners so that's a big bonus from all of this.

That said, we will, at best, remain stagnant unless there's something innovative done to get fans involved and back onside. I also think the money made from a share offer would be better served in a fund for capital expenditure, e.g. artificial pitch or funds towards a new ground, rather than something as temporary and unpredictable as a playing squad.

Dunno, the playing squad gets you lots of money in the Championship, being in the top 4 and being where we were the last 4 seasons in the Championship and League One would be a difference of over a million pounds. It was false economy cutting our wage bill and punting the players we did to do it, Andreu, Russell etc.

Looks like they're investing heavily in the club anyway so hopefully they have a plan to make money and get more fans down to games too.

Having been down south over the weekend and my brain just getting back to normality self inflicted of course im not to sure what to make of all this.Seems a favourable response from the posters so far but forgive me if i reserve my judgement until we we see in the cold light what this all really means to laymen such as myself and a few others i guess.Time will tell of course and hopefully the future is as bright as some people seem to be making it out to be.Personally without sounding like a purveour of doom i await future developments with baited breath.It is Livi after all.

I'm just glad Livi5 are being paid off and will be out of our club, and we can finally move on from their dark cloud of in fighting to get their loans back etc. Having the Rankine shadow hanging over the club was always dragging us down too, you just never felt like we'd get anywhere until he was away and the club was free from his influence.
Gordon Ford did well to keep things ticking over, but that's all we were doing. We needed new blood with new ideas and a bit of enthusiasm to take the club forward, hopefully this is the man to do it.

We'll have to wait until it's a done deal and the plans for the future are laid out for the fans to see, and then if it isn't like before, all words and no action, but for now, the future looks a bit more promising.

Pretty excited about this to be honest. Good to have a proper Livi fan in charge! He has clearly backed the club previously. One of the main points of interest is the fan ownership, we just need to back the club.

I hope everyone keeps their hopes nice and grounded regarding this takeover. I imagine this new guy is just willing to take on the burden of balancing the books rather than having grand plans of moving the club forward. Would love to be proved wrong though.

ol1vercloff wrote:I hope everyone keeps their hopes nice and grounded regarding this takeover. I imagine this new guy is just willing to take on the burden of balancing the books rather than having grand plans of moving the club forward. Would love to be proved wrong though.

He seems to have done a decent job of moving other businesses he's been involved with forward; mind you, I seriously doubt any of them were as much a basket case as we are.

It has got to be better than what we've got just now anyway, or it is only a matter of time before we hit the point of saturation. Best i'm hoping for just now is seeing someone with a strategy and enthusiasm for the job, showing he is at least making an effort to attract business and fans to the club. And not another fly by night gadgie looking to make a few quid selling off the land after he manipulates the Council into selling it to him, that has been all Flynn, Massone and Rankine was interested in and look how that worked out.

3 of his directorships stand out for me...

Fasteq - good sponsorship deal with them before
Krafty Brew - Same

Both of these show an affinity for the club.

Perhaps most importantly, Ross County - so he's not a novice at football directorship. He left before they reached the top tier but was with them for a spell during their climb.

All of these are encouraging.

I look forward to seeing his approach to boost attendances. Winning a league with relative ease doesn't do it, we know this. Good luck to the guy.

ol1vercloff wrote:I look forward to seeing his approach to boost attendances.  Winning a league with relative ease doesn't do it, we know this.  Good luck to the guy.

Yeah but it is a great platform for him to use to promote the club and sell ST's for next season. You have to get Livi FC out there and being League champions has to help him do it.

I'm sure he did more to build his Krafty Brew business up than sticking up a website that only people already aware of his business knew about and a page in the local paper. Good PR and advertising is needed, to build a good relationship with the local community and sell the club as a place to come on a Saturday afternoon for an enjoyable time.

Just look at the difference Food Creation made to the AS when they took over the lease on it, it is a nice relaxing place to go for a pre match pint, but when the club had it, it was cold, run down looking, and pretty miserable.

Actually excited by something going on at board level, think we've finally gone mad.