Community Shares - Pledge Now (updated)

The FC United of Manchester Ten Acres Lane Community Share offer will soon be ready for publication. In the meantime we would like supporters to indicate if they are interested in applying to participate in the scheme and how much they would be able to pledge by entering some details in the form
below. The completion of the form does not commit you to the amount pledged, however we would ask that you make a realistic estimation of what you are likely to be able to afford.

The club is looking to raise the estimated £3.5M for the Ten Acres Lane ground and sports development from a number of sources, we have identified a number of cash grants which could contribute around £1.5M if the applications are successful and we need to raise an additional to £2M from our own resources. We have already raised around half of our target of £500k from the club Development Fund and we have provision within the business
plan to finance the remaining £1.5M through borrowing.

The Community Shares Scheme presents an exciting and more efficient alternative to bank borrowing. FC United is one of only ten projects being supported by Coops UK and central government through the Community Share Scheme designed to enable cooperative organisations like FC United to raise finance from our communities to support expansion and development much more effectively than through traditional methods such as bank borrowing.

We aim to pay a small rate of return and to minimise the administration costs of the scheme we need to set a minimum investment amount. Funds will be locked in and non-withdrawable for the first three years, thereafter a maximum of up to 10% of the total share capital will be available for withdrawal.

Only members will be able to buy Community Shares therefore anyone who wishes to join the scheme will first need to be a member of the club. It is important to note that Community Shares will not carry any additional voting rights; FC United will retain its one member one vote structure.

The FC United board has drawn up a business plan for Ten Acres Lane which details how the new ground will operate for the benefit of both the club and the community of Newton Heath and East Manchester. This business plan shows how the site will generate enough revenue to enable us to invest in the club, extend our community work and to set aside sufficient funds to cover the cost of possible interest payments and any withdrawals from the Community Share Scheme.

Key Points:

• Participants must be members of FC United of Manchester
• Minimum share purchase of £200
• No withdrawals in the first three years of the scheme
• Maximum withdrawal from the scheme of 10% of total share capital in any one year following year three

We expect the offer document to be finalised towards the end of June but in the meantime it would be helpful to gauge members’ interest in the scheme if you could fill out the form below and we will notify you once the offer document is finalised.

Name:
Contact Number:
Email Address
Pledge Amount (£s):
Any Comments/Questions:

What are community shares

From the community shares website...

Community owned enterprises will benefit from an exciting new government-backed initiative which aims to stimulate investment through community share and bond issues.

Community investment is different. Instead of turning to the private sector and wealthy individuals for support, community investment is about engaging communities to invest in themselves.

By harnessing the collective investment powers of whole communities, large amounts of capital can be raised in small sums from members of the community.

You can read more about this scheme on the community shares website.

If you would like further information regarding the FC United scheme please contact the office on 0161 273 8950, staff will arrange for someone to call you back.