Torquay United Fans Forum

YELLOW ARMY SHARE ISSUE - HALF-TIME UPDATE

As at 10th September (9.30pm) we are delighted to confirm the total of £152,781 has so far been pledged to our Crowdfunder Community Share Issue with 17 out of the 35 days still remaining. However, in addition to this sum we have also received a further £8,750 from direct “manual” subscriptions which gives a grand total of £161,531.

To date there have been 364 subscribers contributing to this total with an average contribution of approximately £443 each.

Membership of TUST as at 10th September has reached 1083 which is fantastic.

As mentioned in our last update, the higher the capital raise from the community share issue, the greater TUST’s ownership stake in the Club will be and this will allow it to go further and faster in its rebuilding programme and its journey towards its stated ambition – a return to the Football League. For anyone who has yet to subscribe, the details are available here www.tust.co.uk/yellow-army-share-issue

By way of an example, if the current sum of £161,531 raised was used in its’ entirety to purchase a stake in Torquay United Association Football Club Ltd ("the club"), TUST would own 23.75% of the club when coupled with the £50,000 already subscribed through the TUST Forever Yellow Fund.

Achieving our stretch target of £250,000 would take this ownership stake to over 30%.

The TUST board would once again like to take this opportunity to say a “huge” thank you for your support so far.

Skillsy wrote: ↑27 Aug 2024, 23:32 Matt,

This is a fantastic achievement. Thanks for all your very hard work on this project. I

Thanks Skillsy for your kind comments.

It has been and continues to be a real "team" effort behind the scenes to make this happen. But it is the fanbase who have come up trumps!

Matt

Abbotgull wrote: ↑27 Aug 2024, 22:18 I wonder if sandowngull can answer this question; the long term goal is for the club to be entirely fan owned. Is there a time scale for this? And does becoming 100% fan owned mean that TUST will have to purchase more shares from the directors?

Hi Abbotgull

A good question and one that doesn’t have a black and white response at this point.

There is an argument to say the club is 100% fan owned now with the Bryn Consortium all being fans of the club. But, the investment from TUST helps to bring the fan base closer to the club and to build the long term structure and accountability to us all with an ethos of a club for the fans, owned by the fans.

To the best of my knowledge, Michael, Mark and the rest of the Bryn team are here for the long term and we at TUST are very pleased that they want to be. A partnership approach using some skilled, knowledgeable and savvy business chaps (who are fans) coupled with the support of the wider fan base through TUST seems like a great structure to me.

Initiatives like Paint up Plainmoor are a good example as to how TUST can practically assist the club through its membership base as well as just raising money.

TUST will initially own a percentage of shares in the club and it maybe that such a holding will increase over time, but that is likely to be through the issuance of further shares in TUAFC Ltd as opposed to a share purchase from the Bryn guys. That way, capital is raised and injected into the club to further sustain and improve the financial position.

Of course, in years to come that could change but at the moment there are no firm plans.

I hope that helps in some way.


Matt

RedGull1902 wrote: ↑27 Aug 2024, 21:32 Hi Matt, yes daughter is after name on shirt and board

Hi RedGull

We’ll be doing a wash up exercise on this when the fundraise ends, so we’ll be in contact accordingly.

Thanks
Matt

Taelee73 wrote: ↑27 Aug 2024, 21:11 Congratulations on the £100k barrier being broken, this is fantastic news, not sure how high the total could go, but if we could get close to £200k that would be superb.

Can anyone answer this, will it be an ongoing financial commitment every year? I did look through the prospectus and it doesn't seem so. If you paid £250 pounds, would you expect to pay this same amount every year or just the £24 as a TUST member?

£100k is a big amount of money however as we know it can quickly be spent, just wondering where more funds would be coming from.

Apologies if I have asked questions with obvious answers.

Hi Taelee

The purchase of community shares is a “one off” commitment. The TUST membership of £2 pm or £24 per annum is the only ongoing payment to be made.

At this stage, there are no plans to launch a further issue in the future, but that’s not to say it won’t happen. But if it did, there would be no commitment to invest again, it would be down to the member to chose whether or not to invest.

Hope that helps

Best Wishes

Matt

RedGull1902 wrote: ↑27 Aug 2024, 20:14 Can some one help me out ,l want to do the £250 on behalf of me and my daughter we both have the same initials ie A ,can we pay with first initial and surname?

Hi RedGull 1902

If I am understanding you correctly, you are looking to make a single investment of £250, but wish for it to be showing as "A Smith" for example as opposed to "Andrew Smith" - I know that's not your name, but hopefully you catch my drift?

If that is correct, the answer is as follows:

1 - The TUST Membership will need to be in one of your names i.e. Andrew Smith or Annabel Smith (if that was your daughter's name - remember she will need to be 16 or above)
2 - The investment through crowdfunder will need to match the same name.
3 - The share certificate will need to be in the name of the person on the register and that person will be the person invited along to the "Meet the Manager Event"

However, if you are keen for "A Smith" to be showing on the Shirt then we can arrange that. Similarly if you wish for A Smith to be on the TUST Investor Member Board, we can arrange that.

I hope I have managed to explain that well-enough.

If not, let me know

Thanks for your support

Matt Gorman

Wow... Wow... Wow...

We have hit our minimum £100k target tonight, 4 days into a 35 day campaign. Quite astonishing and a massive reflection of the love there is for this football club and the respect and appreciation there is for the Bryn Consortium for what they have done. I am also very proud to be be a TUST Board Member tonight. We have been working long and hard to make this happen and the response from the TUFC fanbase has been hugely humbling.

So hitting the minimum target provides all the benefits outlined in the Offer Document including that 2nd seat on the club board but most importantly in my book, the heritage rights protection which are enshrined in the Articles of Association now that we know we have met our minimum fundraise target. But, we still have 31 days to go... the offer remains open and the money keeps pouring in. How high can we go? Every £1 from here on in is a "bonus" and provides extra capital for TUST to invest into the club which further strengthens its long term financial position and provides extra funds for the Bryn Consortium / Neil and Paul to work with.

Gulls Fans you are simply amazing and I can't thank you enough.

Matt

Afternoon All....

A quick update to let everyone know we have just sailed past the £75k mark... 3/4 of the way now to the £100k minimum target after just a couple of days. Truly incredible response so far with 33 days still to go. For all of you that have contributed so far (168 of you!) a MASSIVE THANK YOU from all of us at TUST. Our TUST membership has hit 966 today as well which is testimony to the journey we are now on together.. For those of you who are interested in joining us here's a reminder of the link https://www.tust.co.uk/yellow-army-share-issue

Thank you again

Matt

Torquay 2-2 Dorking

Midlandgull wrote: ↑23 Aug 2024, 16:09 Anyone else ran into this message when getting to the payment area?

"Registered Address
Please enter the name and address of the recipient so the project owner can send details relating to the investment. The name and address are not publicly visible, they are only given to the project owner if the project is successful."

Not sure what to put and cannot see instructions. Might be something obvious! If anyone can help that would be great.

Thanks

Hi Midlandgull

Here you would put in your name and addresss details. The project owner is TUST. If the fundraise is successful ie we hit the £100k target, Crowdfunder will then provide all investor details to us so we can then make contact with everyone to issue rewards etc. If not, then funds will be repaid to everyone and your details will not be provided to us for data protection purposes.

I hope that makes sense. If not let me know and I can always give you a call and talk you through it.

Best Wishes

Matt

Afternoon all

I am pleased to confirm the long awaited Community Share Issue (CSI) being run by TUST is now live. Full details can be accessed through our landing page https://www.tust.co.uk/yellow-army-share-issue

The page provides a promotional / thought provoking video coupled with a copy of the Share Offer Document and links to the crowdfunding page for those who wish to subscribe less than £5000. For those of you who wish to consider an investment of more than this sum, please contact us directly via [email protected] where we can discuss your options accordingly.

The target for the share issue is to raise a minimum of £100,000 over the duration of the offer period between 23rd August and 27th September. If this is achieved, TUST will secure certain heritage rights as detailed in the Offer Document and a 2nd seat on the club board. Importantly, the fundraise will provide much needed cashflow to the club in order to help further secure its' financial future.

We will be forever thankful to the Bryn Consortium for saving the club in its hour of need and this fund raise is an opportunity for us as fans to demonstrate what we can do to support the consortium and lead us towards the goal of a club "owned by the fans for the fans" so we never have to experience what we had to go through at the end of last season again.

We would like to put on record our thanks to the club for helping with this initiative. Michael Westcott and Sam Barnes in particular have worked tirelessly with us at TUST to get to this point. Will and Ryan at Cutleaf (who produced the supporting video) and Darren at Graphic Bomb (who helped with the design of the Offer Document) have all been fantastic.

This initiative is wholeheartedly supported by the Bryn Consortium and a significant amount of communication and promotional activity is being planned to bring this to the attention of all who have an interest in Torquay United so watch out for this coming your way!

We hopefully look forward to whatever support you may be abe to give to this initiative.

Thankyou

Matt Gorman
TUST Board Member

Bath 0 TUFC 1

Farnborough 0 - 1 Torquay

I'll go for 2-0 to the gulls!

Can't see us conceding...

sandowngull wrote: ↑07 Aug 2024, 20:02
A further seat on the club board is being offered to further enhance the voice of the fans with TUST having the honour and privilege to fulfil this through the ultimate appointment of 2 directors. These places will be for an intial fixed period, but the TUST membership will have the ability to nominate and vote on future directorships. Whilst Nick Brodrick as TUST Chairman will rightfully take the first position, the second directorship will follow a nomination process by TUST members.

Having re-read my earlier post, I just wanted to clarify this particular section further by detailing the wording that is likely to appear in the CSI Prospectus around "CAN I VOTE FOR THE TUST REPRESENTATIVE TO SIT ON TUFC BOARD? "

The first Non-Executive Director position on the TUAFC Ltd board representing TUST will be agreed by the elected TUST Board. This is to ensure continuity of the significant work and progress made over the past few months in conjunction with the Bryn Consortium. It is imperative to build on the existing relationships in place and for communication channels with the TUST board to be clear from outset.
The appointment of a 2nd position on the TUAFC Ltd board (assuming the minimum community share issue investment level is met) will be through a nominee and election process. Nominees will be invited and a candidate will be elected by the TUST board based on an objective analysis of the skill set and attributes of each nominee against pre-defined criteria.

The appointment to the TUAFC Ltd board will be for a minimum 1-year period with re-elections made at the time of the TUST AGM each year. The expectation is however that each TUST appointed director will serve at least 2 consecutive terms so they can build a good understanding of the Club’s internal dynamics and decision-making and crucially, build good relationships with fellow Directors and staff members.

I hope that is helpful

Matt Gorman