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1995 Share Issue
Following his rescue of the club in 1994, Fergus McCann sought to raise money, and crucially expand the number of shareholders within the club by turning the club into a public limited company (PLC) by floating it on the London Stock Exchange. Part of the desire behind expanding the shareholding was to prevent one person, or a small group of people, run the club as had happened under the previous regime.
In early 1995 the club was floated on the stock exchange. The flotation was an unqualified success (the most successful share issue ever in a football club) and was over-subscribed and raised £21M. A feature of this flotation was that ordinary fans were encouraged to buy shares. 10,500 did contributing £9M in the process, with remainder being contributed by McCann and other investors. This take up of shares placed about 40% of the issued share capital with ordinary fans. These fans had not invested for financial returns, but rather for emotional ties to the club and many share certificates were framed and hung on the wall.
One fan who took up the opportunity to invest in the club for the first time was slightly different from the rest – Irish billionaire Dermot Desmond who invested £4M and took a place on the PLC board. Desmond would be key to future issues.
The money raised by the club through this issue was used to provide working capital, and was key to funding the massive redevelopment of Celtic Park.
1999 Share Disposal
Following his takeover in 1994, McCann had always stated that he would only stay at Celtic for five years, and he was true to his word. In 1999 McCann put his 51% shareholding in the club up for sale. This was not quite the same as the previous share issue, or the subsequent ones, where new shares were issued and the capital invested in the club. This was McCann selling his shareholding and the money would go to him and not the club. McCann did put in place an interest-free payment scheme which would help ordinary fans buy shares, however a nasty taste was left in the mouth. McCann had promised that if enough fans bought shares, then he would donate £1.5M to help fund a new youth academy at the club. While the amount raised by fans was more than amount expected, crucially the number of fans did not meet the targets set by McCann for this clause to be activated, i.e. fewer fans bought shares, but those who did more than expected (or required under the sale regulations). While McCann was correct that conditions had not been fulfilled, it was galling to the ordinary fans who had poured money into the club to see McCann walk away with a large profit and, in their view, welch out of the donation on technicality.
This disposal was underwritten by Dermot Desmond. 9,997,728 ordinary shares were offered for sale at £2.80 each. 7,525,880 (75%) of these were bought either by fans or by institutional investors. The remaining 25% went Desmond as underwriter. This increased his shareholding in the club to 19.8%, and for the first time he became the largest shareholder. At this stage 63% of the shares in Celtic were owned by the fans, 17% by institutional investors and the remaining 20% by Desmond.
2001 Share Issue
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2005 Share Issue
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