We all know who Celtic’s majority shareholder is and the man who calls the shots when it comes to who runs the club.
But who is our second major shareholder and what’s their view on Celtic?
Lindsell Train, an investment group, at last check owned 18.6% of Celtic’s shares which puts them.
The group upping its stake in the club back in 2019 when Brendan Rodgers scurried off in the night to Leicester and the share priced dropped.
Dermot Desmond still sits as a comfortable majority shareholder with 34.7%. We know there’s an emotional investment from Desmond in the club but what is Lindsell Train’s game?
The company, co-founded by Nick Train is a company that reportedly owns an equity fund of around £5.8billion.
The company sees a lot of value in investing in sports franchises. They also have holdings in Juventus and Manchester Utd.
There is no emotional attachment to the shares and the 18.6% investment to date is all about making money for the group.
They see Celtic as a brand that have the ability to go well beyond their current value under the right circumstances.
On Thursday, at the mere suggestion of a move to a British League hit the papers, the share price sharply pointed upward.
This company is taking the long view on Celtic and are banking on the club’s circumstances changing for the better (Financially) down the road.
Speaking on A Celtic State of Mind on Friday, Chairman of the Celtic Trust, David Low spoke about the concerns surrounding two shareholders holding all the cards after being asked if Fergus McCann had concerns around the current setup.
“I know he has concerns of a hostile takeover, the fact that Celtic’s share ownership profile is being controlled by two shareholders
“Dermot who I spoke about earlier and an investment company called Lindsell Train
“Lindsell Train are professional investors, they have no emotional investment in Celtic, their investment in Celtic is designed to make money for their unitholders.
“So they’ve bought Celtic shares because they expect to make money and if this price was right, they’d sell their shares.
“That’s a concern that control is vested amongst two shareholders
“Obviously Dermot is an emotional investor because Celtic shares haven’t been a good investment, let’s be clear about that
“Most of the shareholders are Celtic supporters, most of the shareholders haven’t bought shares to make money
“Most of the shareholders including the Celtic trust have bought shares to own a part of Celtic, because they want to have a say in the running of Celtic, that’s why you buy shares”
“As it happens the shares have performed incredibly poorly since Fergus McCann left, they lost 60% of their value. So it’s not exactly a good investment from a stock exchange perspective.
“It does make you wonder why Lindsell Train have bought 18% of Celtic in the last few years
“The reason for that has been in the news this week – jurisdictional change. I think an investor like Lindsell Train own shares in Celtic because they’re betting or gambling for want of a better phrase on Celtic ending up in a different jurisdiction than this little backwater in Scotland
“If that were to happen, if Celtic were to get into a more financially lucrative jurisdiction like a British League or an Atlantic League or even a Super League, the revenue profile would change dramatically and the shares would for example, quadruple.”
The Celtic’s Trust’s ultimate objective is to buy up as many shares as they can to have a bigger say in how the club operates.
To do that, they need our support. You can subscribe to the Celtic Trust by going to their website https://celtictrust.net/. Every member of the Trust has an equal say.
