Town have issued 55 million new shares worth almost £14 million.
The move appeared on the Companies House website last night along with another submission which showed Gamechanger 20 Ltd, which owns more than 90 per cent of the Blues following last year’s takeover, issuing more than £22 million in shares.
It’s likely the share issues relate to cash being moved into Gamechanger from, presumably, Town’s ultimate owner, Arizona’s Public Safety Personnel Retirement System (PSPRS), and then on into the club. This isn’t necessarily new money going into the club now, but that the filing has just been made.
The Blues will have made a loss during the last financial year and will continue to do so in the immediate future as the new owners look to take the club into the Championship and then eventually the Premier League. The cash coming into the club will cover those losses.
Funds being injected into the club in the form of shares rather than loans - as was largely the case under Marcus Evans - aren't impacted by League One’s Financial Fair Play rules which are aimed at preventing sides from building up significant debts.
In March, CEO Mark Ashton spoke to TWTD and the Blue Monday podcast about investment.
"Let’s be really clear, we’re investing serious money into the football club,” he said. "The football club was a loss-making entity when we bought it, it’s still a loss-making entity. We’ll lose more money this season because we’ve put more money in.
"What we have throughout the season are planned what we call ‘cash calls’ and regarding the cash calls, the owners are aware of what the cash requirement is for the next year or the next two years.”
Gamechanger issuing new shares means that former owner Evans’s stake has reduced from the five per cent which was the case at the time of the takeover.
"If you don’t put your money in, your percentage is diluted, which is commonplace in UK business and world business,” Ashton continued.
"It flexes on when we put the cash call together who contributes to that cash call, they will slightly vary their percentages. If you don’t follow your cash, if you don’t make the cash calls, you get diluted.”
The Three Lions - Brett Johnson, Berke Bakay and Mark Detmer - will also have seen their stake drop from five per cent if they haven’t contributed to the cash more recently moved into the club.