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.

Photo: Blair Ferguson

Marcus added 10:50 - Jul 19 "Town issuing new shares means that former owner Evans's stake in the club has reduced from the five per cent which was the case at the time of the takeover." I bet he'll be over the moon with that! It's good for the club, bad for Mr Evans!
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Bluearmy_81 added 11:05 - Jul 19 Please no 'Mr' Marcus!! Just Evans. My skin crawls every time I hear an Ipswich fan addressing him so...
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TotalBlue added 11:06 - Jul 19 It is possible Marcus Evans does not lose out 5% of 100 pounds is 5 pound 2.5% of 200 pounds is 5 pounds its common business practice. Your dilluted but not de valued
7

Ipswichbusiness added 11:16 - Jul 19 I agree with totalblue. Mr Evans will still have the same number of shares, but they will be a smaller percentage of the shares in issue.
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Marcus added 11:25 - Jul 19 Bluearmy_81 - only because he stole my first name ;)
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Wallingford_Boy added 11:32 - Jul 19 So how do we buy shares?
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trncbluearmy added 11:46 - Jul 19 You can't,unless a public offer is made Suspect the only way a pension fund can invest is via the purchase of shares,loans are probably not allowed. At situation which is good for ITFC
2

slade1 added 11:51 - Jul 19 Anyone know how I can buy shares please?
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runningout added 12:04 - Jul 19 think the last 15 years should be forgot
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PutneyBlue added 12:14 - Jul 19 Bang on, TotalBlue. He'll have a smaller slice of a bigger cake.
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runningout added 12:17 - Jul 19 do yourselves all a favour and forget
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Bluearmy_81 added 12:34 - Jul 19 Agree running. As long as its never allowed to repeat again. Where an owner does so much harm over such a long protracted period with fans just shrugging and not standing up for their club, with pride demanding better. That's all I don't want to see again as long as I live... ITID
1

NITFC added 13:09 - Jul 19 All this aggression towards Marcus Evans. Agreed, we didn't do well under his ownership, but didn't he effectively gift the club £100 million pounds when he sold it?
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Monkey_Blue added 13:21 - Jul 19 @NITFC… don't waste your breath. Despite finding a loss making club for years and then wiping that money off almost entirely some on here have him down as some evil greedy villain who did nothing for the club. Evans lost lots of money and didn't make the club pay. Puts him well above most club owners.
5

ericclacton added 13:23 - Jul 19 Well, don't look at me, Jesus.
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Bluearmy_81 added 14:11 - Jul 19 What a guy hey monkey? Statue for Evans alongside Alf and Bobby? What's that, he took us to our lowest ebb in anyone's living memory and made us a laughing stock?! A position we're still trying to recover from now?!! You know no-one made him buy us?!! 🙄🙄🙄
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Bluearmy_81 added 14:13 - Jul 19 NITFC he had no choice such was the mess he made of running the club!! Your club! Some of you... 🤯
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Gforce added 14:46 - Jul 19 Be wary when it comes to football shares,I once bought shares in both Chelsea and Leeds (when football club shares were all the craze)didn't buy a large volume by any means.But a few years down the line,still lost the total investment on both clubs,when different takeovers took place.In Chelsea's case,it was the good old Ken Bates era,the shares became worthless and I was sent a signed framed photograph of the team to soften the blow. Hopefully the Towns shares if they become available, will be a far more profitable investment, when we eventually reach the promised land.

3

FromIpswichToPhoenix added 17:34 - Jul 19 I hope the Three Lions continue to support Ipswich moving forward. They tossed Phoenix Rising aside this season and left us to rot. They moved on to better things and there is a whole lot of animosity towards them here in Phoenix right now.
1

Ipswichbusiness added 21:25 - Jul 19 FromIpswichtoPhoenix; that is an interesting comment. For those of us who are not familiar with Phoenix Rising, please could you expand on it? What has happened?
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FromIpswichToPhoenix added 22:33 - Jul 19 We're third from bottom. One of the worst defense records in the entire league. 1-1-8 in the last 10 games. Losing home and away to teams we should be destroying. They never brought in an assistant coach when we lost our last one. Not bringing in new permanent players. Just some unproven ones with lower league experience. They aren't righting the ship. We haven't played the same team lineup more than once this year. The owners finally announced support of the coach yesterday and said "So we are backing him, maybe even providing him with additional resources". Maybe? We suck this year. Hard. We NEED additional resources, and they MIGHT consider it. None of the owners talk about us on social media. I'm convinced Berke Bakay is the one who told the club to not say anything about Roe vs Wade, which has upset a LOT of people. Almost every other team in the USL Championship took a stance, but us. A quick look at the right wing lunatics he follows on Twitter tells you all you need to know. Vegas and Aston Villa announced an MLS bid in the 1 billion dollar range and its's just too expensive for our owners. Their attention is now on Town and getting them to the premiere league as it is way cheaper than an MLS buy in now. Johnson already bailed on us. We don't even know if we have a stadium next season as they are dropping the ball on that too. Season ticket holders are already threatening to walk and the club just double downed on their inaction. It sucks. We have been amazing the last five years.

1

SoCalTownFan added 23:22 - Jul 19 @FromIpswichToPhoenix I've been saying this from day one. The new owners are investing in the club. That means they want to make money from it - thats all. That's fine if everything goes to plan and we reach premier league glory. Bu they have no loyalty or stake in the club other than financial. If it all goes wrong they will cut their losses and sod the club. Marcus Evans's experience of shoveling in and losing millions of his own capital shows us that it is a loss making game at everything except the highest levels.

2

ButchersBrokenNose added 03:12 - Jul 20 Phoenix and SoCal: Totally agree. This is a make-or-break year for our club. If we are not in the Championship this time next year, I could easily see Game Changer cutting their losses and selling us. KMK has a lot of potential, but he is unproven as a manager; if we are not in the top two or thereabouts at Christmas, I think they will fire him. Replacing him will be their final throw of the dice before cutting us loose. And before Blues1 (and anyone else who thinks all is well at PR) criticizes me for moaning and not giving the owners a chance, I would say I want us to succeed, too, but football's a business and the Three Lions don't give a monkey's about Sir Alf, Sir Bobby, etc. I don't blame them for wanting to make money, but all the jumping up and down and shaking supporters' hands is polite window-dressing and we should see through it. They care about turning an under-valued asset into a money-maker, and that's where their interest ends. When we become an under-performing part of their portfolio, they will write us off.

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BlueRuin69 added 09:24 - Jul 20 Butchersbrokennose......really! Did u work that out on your own. Welcome to how capitalism works. Coyb!
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Bert added 11:32 - Jul 20 I find people calling Johnson by his first name (Boris) far more irksome than addressing our former owner Evans with his gender identity. All I care about now is that the turnaround in our club and the management put in place can take us to the promised land.
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