West Brom shareholders to battle on after bid for Jeremy Peace loan investigation fails
Albion’s minority shareholders have vowed to fight on despite failing in their bid for a full investigation into a £3.7million loan made to former owner Jeremy Peace.
A resolution put forward by the group Shareholders for Albion (S4A) which would have triggered an extensive independent review into the 2014 transaction was rejected at a meeting held at The Hawthorns on Thursday night.
Despite the majority of the 60-plus shareholders present voting in favour, they were unable to win the support of the club’s Chinese ownership, who possesses 88 per cent of the shareholding.
Albion chief executive Xu Ke, who chaired the meeting, was instructed to vote against the proposals on behalf of WBA Holdings, the company which received the loan in 2014 when controlled by Peace.
Xu Ke, known as Ken, announced the club were prepared to instruct a barrister to look into the paperwork concerning the deal but S4A insisted this would not go far enough.
The loan has never been repaid and liability for the debt was transferred to current owner Guochuan Lai when Peace sold the club in 2016. The interest on the loan now stands at more than £1m.
During Thursday’s meeting, it emerged the club will aim to seek repayment of the loan before the end of the year by declaring a dividend to shareholders, which would then provide WBA Holdings the necessary funds.
But in a statement yesterday, S4A described this method as “wholly inappropriate”. While expressing their gratitude to Ken, who fielded more than 90 minutes of questions during the meeting, the group described the failure to commission a full review as “disappointing” and “perplexing”. They remain hopeful of persuading the club to reconsider in the future.
Their statement read: “Our initial preference, of course, is to continue to work with Ken, to try and achieve the investigation required, via agreement. In the absence of agreement, there remain various avenues open to us.
“Due to legal reasons, we cannot comment further at this time. We will meet as a Committee and consult with our members in due course, before deciding on the next steps.
“We will continue to do what is necessary to protect the interests of our great club, on behalf of its supporters and shareholders.”
Peace has always strongly denied accusations the loan was used to increase his shareholding, which rose from 65 per cent to 88 per cent in 2014.
He has also maintained the deal was “competitively advantageous” to the club and earlier this month claimed he would welcome an investigation.
