Swansea Football LLC, which has numerous shareholders, has owned a majority stake in Swansea City for more than seven years. Despite numerous promises this summer for clarity, nothing has changed with the most recent filings at Companies House, which list the total shareholdings in the football club.
The ownership shareholding clearly identifies who has made direct investments in the club as well as who has made investments through the LLC that was formed when the club first changed ownership in 2016, under the leadership of Steve Kaplan and Jason Levien. Andy Coleman has made an effort to discuss his investment in the club multiple times this summer, but it is yet another one of those secret investments because the vehicle for that specific money is the LLC, whose composition is unknown.
Who exactly owns the LLC’s shares is still a mystery to which no one seems to have the answers, and it continues to raise more questions than it does solutions. In the past two months alone, Coleman has asserted that he is the one who makes decisions, Jake Silverstein has largely discounted Russell Martin’s abilities in his final weeks at Swansea, and an unidentified source has asserted that the Albermarle has a controlling interest in Swansea City.
The investment from Nigel Morris in the summer is the only apparent (and clear) investment directly into the football club, though his influence has been nowhere to be seen with Coleman determined to tell everyone that he is the man in charge at the moment. It all just raises more questions in an already murky picture. like Jake Silverstein and Chris Pearlman before him!
According to the shareholding information that was reported this week, there are currently slightly over 2.6 million shares of the football club in existence, of which the LLC owns 1.86 million, or 71.6% of the total.
The Trust’s shareholding shows their A class shares at 47500 (1.82%) and B class shares at 152499 (5.85%), highlighting the dilution of their shares since the legal action was dropped, which had the effect of taking almost 2/3 of their shareholding. Huw Jenkins continues to own 1.82% of the company, as do Martin and Louise Morgan together, with their shareholding split equally.
With additional shares of 9500 to Brian Katzen and the original 1 share that belonged to David Morgan when the club changed hands back in 2002, Nigel Morris’ interest in the club amounts to 16.67% of the total.
What makes up that shareholding in LLC may not matter to many fans, but the lack of transparency that has existed since the ownership changed in 2016 only serves to increase the cynicism that the club’s operations frequently inspire. Since then, a number of people have been sent to the club to work closely on a day-to-day basis, but each of them has left almost as soon as they arrived. They were all sent with the apparent goal of working closely with the Supporters Trust, but this seems to have only involved adding them to statements (or giving them token seats on fan forums) rather than playing the necessary, clear role. A group established to promote good governance ought to be strict
